In what We Are Ohio is calling "the worst attack on collective bargaining rights since Senate Bill 5," Ohio Senate Bill 1 was introduced last week and is an obvious anti-union attempt to silence public university faculty union members and limit their bargaining on the job. SB 1, the first bill of the 2025 General Assembly session, would impact 13 Ohio campus unions and roughly 10,000 Ohio union members. We Are Ohio is the coalition that defeated SB5, the 2011 assault on public collective bargaining rights.
SB 1, introduced by Ohio Senator Jerry Cerino (R-Kirtland), attacks workers' rights by limiting what can be collectively bargained in a contract and would ban strikes for Ohio university faculty. If this bill passes, argues We Are Ohio, every public sector union member in Ohio should be prepared for similar attacks on their union rights.
In the last legislative session, Cirino was behind Senate Bill 83, a similar bill that fought to prohibit certain bargaining subjects and ban striking for unions at our public colleges and universities. Senate Bill 83 might have died in the Ohio House during lame duck, but Cirino has vowed not to stop, calling it one of the Republican-led Senate's highest priorities. “It is called Senate Bill 1 for a reason,” Cirino said. “It is our top priority.”
We Are Ohio and all of its coalition partners, including OCSEA, will continue to fight back against any and all attacks on the rights of working people. SB 1 is bad for public union members because...
- SB 1 is a harmful an attack on working people, labor and unions.
- SB 1 handcuffs collective bargaining by limiting bargaining rights that are key to the terms and conditions of employment.
- SB 1 attempts to silence the voices of more than 10,000 union workers who educate the next generation of Ohio leaders and drive Ohio’s research economy.
- SB 1 creates an unacceptable foot in the door effort to limit collective bargaining rights for public safety and public health jobs and workers.
- SB 1 begins the dismantling of collective bargaining rights for all workers and that is unacceptable.
We fought back and overcame SB 5, and we can do the same for SB 1, says We Are Ohio. It’s time to stand together again and fight back against SB 1. Read more and TAKE ACTION here.