Governor Dayton’s Baleful Influence on Labor Relations
By Jason Hart/BigGovernment.com
One month ago Ohio voted with its heart against reforms portrayed as an attack on public workers. Ohio, DC, and New York union bosses spent more than $30 million drenching the airwaves in images of sad firefighters, sad police officers, and evil Republicans, convincing voters to overlook a broken status quo.
A month later, how are local governments celebrating the union victory on Issue 2?
Middletown is laying off 9 firefighters, despite the city’s police and fire budgets both increasing by nearly 1/3 in the past decade. In Hamilton, a $5.9 million death tax haul will delay the inevitable:
Inflation coupled with new technology costs and the significant rises in health care costs have contributed to the rise in safety services budgets [...]
The Hamilton fire union contract contains a minimum staffing clause, which means overtime if people are out sick or on vacation. When staffing dipped to 106 between 2008 and 2010, overtime was a significant factor in the fire budget increase, city officials have said.
http://biggovernment.com/jhart/2011/12/06/union-bosses-win-ohio-workers-get-fired/
