You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
Ohio Governor John R. Kasich on Thursday signed legislation that would effectively bar the faculties of Ohio public colleges from unionizing -- even though many of them already engage in collective bargaining. Faculty unions have fought hard against the legislation, but Republican legislators have generally backed it and had enough votes to get the bill through, so the outcome was not a surprise. Ohio has until now been fertile ground for faculty unions, and is a key state in the collective bargaining activities of the American Association of University Professors.
Cary Nelson, national president of the AAUP, issued this statement Thursday: "This is a black day in American labor history. The basic human rights of 400,000 public sector workers in Ohio have been cast aside by a legislature and a governor who are opposed to the principle that employees should have a voice in their own working conditions. These politicians -- enemies of democracy -- will themselves answer to the will of the people in November."
