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The Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. (Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland.com)Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland.com<\/p>\nThe Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. (Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland.com)Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland.com<\/p>\n
A new coalition of Ohio\u2019s public employee unions has formed to fight against legislative attacks <\/a>on their pension systems\u2014but on cleveland.com\u2019s Today in Ohio podcast<\/a>, hosts asked why these powerful groups aren\u2019t taking the more direct approach of voting out the lawmakers targeting them.<\/p>\n The podcasters discussed the formation of an umbrella group including the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the Ohio Education Association, Fraternal Order of Police, Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters, AFSCME Council 8, and the Ohio Association of Public School Employees. The organizations are uniting to protect their retirement systems from legislative interference.<\/p>\n But Chris Quinn challenged the strategy\u2019s effectiveness, pointing out the raw political power these groups could wield if properly organized: \u201cThe thing is, when you look at this umbrella group, it is a boatload of people. Every teacher, every cop, every firefighter, public employees everywhere. Why aren\u2019t they using the power of the ballot box to wipe out all these clowns who are targeting them? That\u2019s the thing that strikes me.\u201d<\/p>\n This provocative question cuts to the heart of a political paradox in Ohio. Despite representing tens of thousands of members across the state, the unions have struggled to translate their numbers into electoral victories against the Republican supermajority that frequently targets them.<\/p>\n Laura Johnston agreed with Quinn\u2019s assessment: \u201cRepresentation is how you\u2019re going to get anything changed in the Statehouse. And the unions do have political power when it comes to raising money.\u201d<\/p>\n Quinn didn\u2019t hold back on what he sees as a missed opportunity: \u201cThey can wipe out all these fringe people in the legislature with a concerted effort. It\u2019s just they\u2019ve never been able to get organized. The Democrats have fallen apart in this state completely.\u201d<\/p>\n The podcast discussion highlighted that union members aren\u2019t just concentrated in urban areas but are spread throughout Ohio\u2019s rural and suburban districts. The geographic distribution could potentially give them influence in legislative races across the state if they coordinated their voting power.<\/p>\n The threat to these unions isn\u2019t hypothetical. The Legislature has repeatedly targeted public pensions, which workers have paid into throughout their careers. Rather than forming defensive coalitions after attacks begin, Quinn suggested a more proactive approach: identifying and supporting candidates who would champion their interests.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they decided to, they could pick candidates and say, look, we want you to run against Joe Schmo because he\u2019s targeting public schools and all these other things. We need somebody who\u2019s going to stand for what\u2019s right,\u201d Quinn said.<\/p>\n The discussion revealed a broader concern about the state of political organization in Ohio and the failure of opposition groups to effectively challenge the entrenched power structure despite having the numerical advantage.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an essential conversation for anyone interested in understanding how political power actually operates in the Buckeye State. Listen to the episode here.<\/a><\/p>\n Listen to full \u201cToday in Ohio\u201d episodes<\/a> where Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with Editorial Board member Lisa Garvin, Impact Editor Leila Atassi and Content Director Laura Johnston.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. (Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland.com)Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland.com A new coalition of Ohio\u2019s public employee unions…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":301264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[64,255,12540,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-301263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-personal-finance","10":"tag-processedbyclaro","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115369708415101386","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}