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Cleveland
Plain Dealer...
Safety
forces launch billboard push
against Issue 2
By Henry J. Gomez
September 13, 2011`
CLEVELAND,
Ohio -- Three labor groups
representing safety forces will spend about $60,000 to urge voters to
strike
down Senate Bill 5, the Republican-backed law that restricts the
collective
bargaining power of Ohio’s public unions.
With
the Greater Cleveland Peace
Officers Memorial as a backdrop, leaders from the Cleveland Police
Patrolmen’s
Association, Northern Ohio Fire Fighters Association and Ohio
Patrolmen’s
Benevolent Association announced their outdoor advertising push Friday.
Six
billboards, featuring a
firefighter, police officer and nurse, will go up near Cleveland. A few
more
are likely to pop up in Medina County. The message ties the safety of
Ohio’s
communities to the defeat of Issue 2, the November voter referendum on
SB 5.
“We
don’t want to dictate what their
vote is,” said Steve Loomis, head of the patrol officers union. “We
want to
educate them.”
Union
leaders have argued that the
law, passed this year, prevents rank-and-file safety workers from
negotiating
staffing levels with management.
“If
our voices are silent, that harms
residents,” said Brian Dunlap, secretary/treasurer for the firefighters
group.
“A doctor is an advocate for a patient like we’re an advocate for the
people in
our communities.
Pictured
on the billboard are Berea
firefighter William Phelps and Tom Austin, a Twinsburg police officer.
The
push comes as supporters and
opponents of Issue 2 launch television ad campaigns. We Are Ohio, the
group
urging a repeal of SB 5, began airing a spot featuring a firefighter
last week.
Building a Better Ohio, which supports upholding the bill, followed
this week
with an ad that features Toledo Mayor Mike Bell, a former firefighter,
endorsing the law.
Jason
Mauk, spokesman for Building a
Better Ohio, countered the unions’ safety claims by arguing that SB 5
will save
communities money, thus avoiding layoffs of police and firefighters.
“Public
safety is being sacrificed to
balance local budgets,” Mauk said. “Only the reforms of Issue 2 will
help to
correct that.”
Read
it at the Cleveland Plain Dealer
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