Hundreds rally to get fired up against S.B. 5
Athens News – An estimated 1,500 people from multiple southeast Ohio counties braved the damp and chill in Gallipolis Saturday afternoon to hear politicians and organizers urge them to get out the vote and overturn Ohio Senate Bill 5. The controversial state law, passed earlier this year, limits collective-bargaining rights for public-sector unions.
Speakers included, notably, a sitting Republican state senator — whose stated reservations about S.B. 5 prompted his party leadership to yank him off a key committee just before the vote on the bill took place in February.
Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, told a crowd at the Gallia County Junior Fairgrounds — whose members included Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl and City Council member Christine Fahl — that he continues to believe the law destroys the good faith between labor and management that’s needed to achieve fair contracts.
“We may need changes (in the law), but we don’t need a race to the bottom,” Seitz said. “And that’s what S.B. 5 is going to give us… I’m ready to lead the charge for legal and fair reforms. But we don’t need to get run over by a bus to build a better Ohio.”
