Hoffa: We will fight on in Ohio!

Tuesday's rally in Columbus.

If you haven't heard the bad news yet, the Ohio Senate passed a bill to strip government workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights. The bill will certainly pass the House, and Gov. John Kasich will certainly sign it.

That doesn't mean we've given up the fight. President Jim Hoffa said today the Teamsters will pursue every possible avenue to defeat the bill and to protect working families. Hoffa said he was outraged that the bill passed, and that it's part of a nationwide coordinated war on working families by politicians paying back billionaires and CEOs who funded their campaigns.

The senators who voted for this bill should be ashamed of themselves. Politicians should be working to create jobs, not destroy middle-class protections.

This bill goes too far. It doesn’t create a single job and it punishes workers who are essential to the functioning of our communities, including nurses who fight for patient safety, firefighters who run into burning buildings and snowplow drivers who work long hours to clear our streets.

SB 5 would nearly eliminate collective bargaining for government workers. It includes provisions to ban strikes by public workers, remove binding arbitration and eliminate union negotiations over health care and other benefits. The bill is slated to go to the Ohio House for a vote, and if it passes, will reach the desk of Gov. John Kasich, who supports the measure.

We will fight on in Ohio against corporate-backed politicians who are waging war against workers. These attacks in Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana and throughout the country are reviving the labor movement and bringing Americans together in a way we haven’t seen in many, many years.

We will pursue every avenue possible to defeat this bill and to protect working families. We are not giving up this fight.