Unions have the collective power to make life better for any number of workers. Through unions, workers have won better job security, higher wages, affordable health benefits, retirement security, reasonable working hours, and paid vacations. So why has Ohio Governor John Kasich rescinded the rights of Ohio's healthcare workers and child care workers to form unions?
Kasich's argument is that workers only need unions to get healthcare insurance, and he imagines that a preschool assistant making nine dollars an hour can afford to buy insurance on the open market. Even if that were true, unions offer a great deal more than Kasich has acknowledged. Unions protect workers from wrongful dismissal and from working unpaid overtime, just to name two of the most obvious benefits.
Kasich has a history of restricting and stomping on unions, but voters overturned a move he made in 2011 to restrict union powers. You can make a difference for Ohio workers today by signing this petition which asks Kasich to reverse his decision on unions for healthcare and childcare workers.
Dear Governor Kasich,
We the undersigned are sad to hear that you have restricted the rights of healthcare and childcare workers to form unions. Heathcare workers are historically overworked, and childcare workers are historically underpaid. These are two professions that really need unions to protect workers from the worst potential abuses of the workplace. Unions enforce reasonable hours, living wages, payment of overtime, time off for family deaths and illnesses, affordable health insurance, and many more benefits, too numerous to name. So we are respectfully asking that you reverse your recent decision to rescind the right of these workers to form unions. Unions may be their best chance to find and retain some dignity and fairness in their employment.
