The IAEP has submitted letters of opposition for Ohio Senate Bill 1 and Ohio Senate Bill 8, two pieces of legislation that attack public sector unions in the state.
SB 1 aims to slash bargaining power and prevent our fellow public servants– teachers– from being able to strike.
While the collective bargaining rights of us first responders have not yet been directly challenged, we find that the mere introduction of SB 1 and its threats against our brothers and sisters in education poses an alarming step in the wrong direction for all workers’ rights in this state. We as fellow public employees refuse to stay silent as our abilities to serve our state are gutted agency by agency.
SB 8 aims to prohibit paid public employee leave for certain union activities.
While some have argued that unions introduce a third party into the employee-employer relationship that prevents real collaborative efforts between workers and management, we emphatically oppose this assertion. We EMS professionals are the union– we EMTs, paramedics, and dispatchers are the ones on the ground answering these calls for help, and we are the ones bargaining for our rights to emergency supplies, safety procedures and equipment improvements to best serve our patients. These union activities that SB 8 hopes to eliminate actually improve our relationships with management– and benefit the public by allowing us to have a better say in how we do our jobs.
For these reasons, the IAEP stands in firm opposition of these two bills.
You can read the full letters of opposition below.
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