Legislative Update - January 11, 2018

Intro
The State legislature returns for what should be an action packed couple of months before members  break for primary elections.  At the local level, Cleveland City Council will integrate new members and start its work on the City budget while County Council will begin its post budget work and have half its members up for reelection this year. 

State
Right to Work and Anti Prevailing Wage Resolutions Introduced
State Representative John Becker a Republican from Union Township outside of Cincinnati and Representative Craig Riedel a Republican from the Defiance area introduced six joint resolutions in the Ohio Statehouse. If the resolutions, were to pass, the anti labor issues would appear on the 2020 ballot for voters to decide. 
The sponsors of these resolutions claim these policies will make Ohio more competitive and more in line with other states as four out of five of Ohio’s neighboring states have Right to Work. 

The resolutions are described below:

Private Sector
HJR 8 Union Membership Proposing to enact Section 22 of Article I of the Constitution of the State of Ohio to prohibit laws, rules, and agreements that require employees of private sector employers to join or pay dues to an employee organization and to prohibit employee organizations from representing nonmember private sector employees in employment-related matters.
HJR 9 Prevailing Wage Prevent a public authority from requiring a contractor on a public improvement project to pay workers the prevailing rate of wages. 
HJR 10 Labor Agreements Forbid certain requirements or prohibitions regarding labor agreements in government contracts.

Public Sector
HJR 7 Union Membership Proposing to enact Section 22 of Article I of the Constitution of the State of Ohio to prohibit laws, rules, and agreements that require employees of public sector employers to join or pay dues to an employee organization and to prohibit employee organizations from representing nonmember public sector employees in employment-related matters. 
HJR 11 Subject Any public Employee Collective Bargaining representative to an annual election to remain certified as the exclusive representative. 
HJR 12 Prohibit Due Collection and other fees from being deducted from the payroll check of a public employee and prohibit those fees from being used for political purposes unless authorized by the employee.  CEA will continue to lobby legislators and tell them why these policies are not good for Ohio, Ohio companies, or Ohio workers. 

State Capital Bill Coming Soon
State projects requests for capital improvements and maintenance of structures were due to the Administration, Ohio House and Ohio Senate members late December and early January.  The project requests are now being reviewed and finalized.   Statehouse leaders will look to introduce the bill in February and move it through the process expeditiously.   CEA will attend hearings and continue to watch for budget provisions that may impact the industry like an attack on prevailing wage. 

Local
City of Cleveland Budget Deliberations 
The City of Cleveland will soon start its budget process. The budget must be submitted no later than Feb. 1st, and Council must approve a balanced budget by April 1st.  In discussions with City officials, an issue CEA members maybe interested in will be to fill city positions that have been left vacant due to budget constraints in previous years.  The intention is to fill positions to allow more efficient service.   

Elections
With the partisan primary filing date approaching quickly, candidates have to decide on filing and running here soon.  A number of those running for Governor were in the process of making important decisions at the time of the writing of this article.  Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich started the first steps to running for Governor by filing paperwork.   Democrat Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neill officially named Chantelle E. Lewis, a principal in the Lorain City School District, as his lieutenant governor running mate.  Republican Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor was expected to announce former Procter & Gamble executive Nathan Estruth as her running mate.  Mr. Estruth serves as the president and CEO of Hamilton-based iMFLUX.  The company deals with materials, plastic mold design and production, polymer processing and machine control software and hardware.  Democratic candidate Richard Cordray will look to announce that former Congresswoman Betty Sutton is his running mate.