COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The state’s new collective
bargaining law was defeated Tuesday after an expensive union-backed
campaign that pitted firefighters, police officers and teachers against
the Republican establishment.
In a political blow to GOP Gov. John
Kasich, voters handily rejected the law, which would have limited the
bargaining abilities of 350,000 unionized public workers. With nearly 95
percent of the votes counted late Tuesday, about 61 percent were to
reject the law.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, among the many
union leaders who hailed the outcome, said victory was achieved among
Democrats and Republicans in urban and rural counties.
"Ohio sent a
message to every politician out there: Go in and make war on your
employees rather than make jobs with your employees, and you do so at
your own peril," he said.
Kasich congratulated his opponents and said he would spend time contemplating how best to take the state
forward.
"I’ve
heard their voices, I understand their decision and, frankly, I respect
what people have to say in an effort like this," he said. "And as a
result of that, it requires me to take a deep breath, you know, and to
spend some time reflecting on what happened here."
Kasich said he has made creating jobs his priority and he’s beginning to see his policies work.
In
a signal of the issue’s national resonance, White House spokesman Jay
Carney issued a statement saying President Barack Obama "congratulates
the people of Ohio for standing up for workers and defeating efforts to
strip away collective bargaining rights, and commends the teachers,
firefighters, nurses, police officers and other workers who took a stand
to defend those rights."
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris
Redfern, at a celebration at a downtown Columbus hotel, said Republicans
and Kasich overreached.
"He literally thought he knew more than everyone else," Redfern said.
Asked
whether the collective bargaining law, called Issue 2, was a referendum
on Kasich, Redfern said, "Absolutely. He was the face of the campaign.
John Kasich chose to put his face on this campaign for the last eight
weeks. The people of the state pushed back."
Labor and business
interests poured more than $30 million into the nationally watched
campaign, and turnout was high for an off-year election.
The law
hadn’t taken effect yet. Tuesday’s result means the state’s current
union rules will stand, at least until the GOP-controlled Legislature
determines its next move. Republican House Speaker William Batchelder
predicted last week that the more palatable elements of the collective
bargaining bill — such as higher minimum contributions on worker health
insurance and pensions — are likely to be revisited after the dust
settles.
Earlier Tuesday, voter Janet Tipton, a 46-year-old nurse
and a Teamsters union member at a private health care center, said Issue
2 was the only reason she came out to vote.
"If they break the
union, we won’t have anything," she said outside a church on Toledo’s
east side. "They’ll come after us, too."
She said retaining the
union-limiting law would have affected quality of care for the elderly
because it would have meant fewer nurses per patient.
Earlier this
year, thousands of people swarmed the Statehouse in protest when the
bill was being heard. The bill still allowed bargaining on wages,
working conditions and some equipment but banned strikes, scrapped
binding arbitration and dropped promotions based solely on seniority,
among other provisions.
Kasich and fellow supporters promoted the
law as a means for local governments to save money and keep workers.
Their effort was supported by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the National
Federation of Independent Business-Ohio, farmers and others.
We
Are Ohio, the largely union-funded opponent coalition, painted the issue
as a threat to public safety and middle-class workers, spending
millions of dollars on TV ads filled with images of firefighters, police
officers, teachers and nurses.
Celebrities came out on both sides
of the campaign, with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin
and singer Pat Boone urging voters to retain the law and former
astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn and the Rev. Jesse Jackson urging
them to scrap it.
Jackson said in a statement issued Tuesday after
the vote that "workers, students and parents have come together,
demonstrated, fought back and won."
"The struggle for workers’
rights in Ohio is something that all Americans cherish. Although
tonight’s gains were a move in the right direction, the struggle
continues," he said. "The passage of Ohio Senate Bill 5 by the
Republican-led Ohio House was deplorable, but the tide has turned."
The
law’s opponents far outnumbered and outspent its defenders. Opponents
reported raising $24 million as of mid-October, compared to about $8
million raised by the committee supporting the law, Building a Better
Ohio.
Tuesday’s result in the closely divided swing state was
expected to resonate from statehouses to the White House ahead of the
2012 presidential election — potentially energizing the labor movement
ahead of Obama’s re-election effort.
Ohio residents also voted
Tuesday to reject an insurance mandate in Obama’s federal health
insurance overhaul. Jeff Longstreth, who managed the successful
campaign, said he sees that issue as more telling for the president’s
future in the swing state.
"Voters spoke very loudly and very
clearly about how they felt about Barack Obama’s proudest legislative
accomplishment," he said.
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Associated Press writers Ann
Sanner in Columbus, John Seewer in Toledo and Jim Kuhnhenn in
Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.