If you think S.B. 5 will just affect unions, you’re crazy

It’s not just members of the public-sector unions who are fighting it, but a broad cross-section of Ohioans who see “collective-bargaining reform,” as it’s euphemistically called, for what it actually is – a blatant effort to cripple one of the last bastions of labor power in Ohio.

Make no mistake, one can be alarmed about this legislation, even while agreeing that in some respects, public-sector unions have benefited from too many sweetheart deals at the expense of taxpayers.

Just like anyone else who toils at a non-union private-sector job, I’ve always thought it unfair that state workers could accumulate sick and vacation time through the years, and then get a huge cash windfall upon retirement.

My reaction to crazy-good benefits for unionized state employees has generally been one of envy rather than resentment, however. It’s “more power to them if they can swing a deal like that!” rather than, “Hey, you dirty rotten SOBs, that’s not fair!”

Granted, a little deeper thought on the topic would have led me to conclude, “By God! these folks are benefiting from my tax dime.”

The point is that Gov. John Kasich and his legislative Republicans could have addressed those issues, along with greater employee contributions to benefits, merit-pay reforms and other worthy provisions, without striking directly at the heart of their ability to function as unions. Did they really need to eliminate the ability to strike, turn binding arbitration into a charade weighted heavily in the government’s favor, and in general, destroy public-employee unions’ ability to leverage concessions from management?

Instead, their fundamental hostility to unions – especially those representing government workers — betrayed itself in any number of provisions whose main effect — and I would presume goal — is to cripple the public-sector unions, and indirectly hurt the Democratic politicians who benefit from their largesse.

This is why S.B. 5 involves much more than the benefits and wages of your neighbor who works on the police department, teaches at the local school, or has a job with the city street department.

If passed in the Ohio House and signed by the governor, S.B. 5 will have the indirect consequence of sucker-punching not just Ohio Democrats, but all of the moderate independents who have been driven out of the Rush Limbaugh/Sarah Palin Republican Party over the past five years.

If you support mainstream and/or moderate positions on public and higher education, health care, environmental regulation, the economy, social issues, gun rights, and any number of other areas, then you can’t support legislation that will enhance the power of a Republican Party that’s increasingly controlled by its wing-nut fringe.

Do you really want to hand the keys of government to people who think nothing of painting schoolteachers as money-grubbing fat-cats, but who weep at the thought of asking a millionaire to pay an extra percentage point in taxes?

Or who won’t acknowledge that reckless state tax cuts approved several years ago not only didn’t help the economy but are directly responsible for at least half of Ohio’s current $8 billion budget shortfall?

Or who don’t think twice about raising the specter of communism when talking about unions?

Here’s a little taste of the sort of insanity that’s fueling the union-busting campaigns across the country these days:

“That is the real issue here. AFSCME and their D.S.A. (Democratic Socialists of America) comrades understand that this is a 'class' battle, a 'struggle' to advance socialism. They understand that the winner of this battle gets to decide America's future.

“While very few of the firemen and teachers putting their bodies on the line for AFSCME would realize this, they are merely pawns in their leadership's Marxist agenda.” — a conservative New Zealand (!) blog that’s being widely circulated by right-wing bloggers in this country.

If you think about politics in broad terms, with every policy debate a battle in a larger war, then you should think of Senate Bill 5 as Gettysburg. And when it passes, that will place you solidly on the losing side if you’re afraid of the political right consolidating its power in Ohio. And don’t think they’ll stop with just that one battle.