S.B.5 Update: 1 Million Signatures To Repeal The GOP WAR On The Working Class

[irishbobcat]

Today we made Ohio history as we turned in 1,298,000 signatures to repeal Senate Bill 5. No other referendum had nearly this many signatures, and it was all thanks to the 10,000-plus volunteers that went door-to-door, worked in the driving rain at drive-thru events and spent hours at local events talking with the community about the devastating affects Senate Bill 5 will have on middle class Ohioans: Union and non-union alike.

As President of the Ohio AFL-CIO, I can say I cannot remember a time where so many union members joined together in solidarity with their sisters and brothers. This was history in the making, and today we said to Governor Kasich, his corporate CEO buddies and all politicians who want to follow his radical agenda versus the will of the people, "This IS what Democracy looks like."

I am confident we will succeed in getting the needed number of valid signatures. And when that occurs, I am confident that the thousands of volunteers who helped gather signatures will volunteer once again to make sure this Bill is killed in November. We will need your help phone banking, handing out worksite fliers and going door-to-door to ensure that those members who signed the petition get out and vote in November. We will also make sure we reach the hundreds of thousands of voters who didn't get the chance to sign the petition and allow them to make their voices heard at the voting booth.

The Ohio AFL-CIO will be leading the most robust labor-to-labor program to date and we need your help to make it happen. Again, I want to thank each and every one of you who either volunteered or signed the petition to let the voice of middle class Ohioans be heard by an administration that only listens to its top donors. Together we will defeat this bill in November 2011, and we will ensure those politicians running for office in 2012 who supported this devastating bill will not return to Columbus to follow Gov. Kasich's corporate CEO agenda.

To see the photos from today's parade, go to our Flickr page.


In Solidarity,
Tim Burga
President of the Ohio AFL-CIO

Pierrette "Petee" Talley
Secretary-Treasurer of the Ohio AFL-CIO

P.S.  Don't forget to call your Senator at 1-888-218-5931 and tell him or her to oppose HB 159, the voter ID bill that would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Ohio voters.