Cincinnati Fire Fighters (IAFF) member Doug Stern says yesterday’s overwhelming rejection of Gov. John Kasich’s (R) attempt to eliminate collective bargaining rights of workers like firefighters, nurses, teachers, bridge inspectors and others shows:

[T]he citizens of Ohio spoke and they made it loud and clear that the focus of government should be on creating sustainable middle class jobs, rather than pushing a partisan political agenda.

Ohio voters today resoundingly overturned the anti-worker agenda pushed by Gov. John Kasich (R), Republican state lawmakers and outside interest groups, which took away the right of public employees to collectively bargain for a middle-class life.

Today the people of Ohio will decide, in a referendum vote, whether Gov. John Kasich’s anti-worker bill will become law or get tossed out. So when an Ohio union staffer and registered Democrat got a robo-call this morning telling her to vote “tomorrow”—not today, Nov. 8—she became immediately suspicious. The call was received by an SEIU staff member.

With the fight in Ohio to defeat Issue 2 coming down to its final days, the Fire Fighters (IAFF) have launched ads featuring firefighters who are war veterans urging voters to vote “No on Issue 2.”  A “No” vote on Issue 2 would repeal S.B. 5, the law passed this spring that takes away the right of public employees to collectively bargain for a middle-class life.

Right-wing dollars are showering Ohio’s airwaves and the coffers of anti-labor politicians as Election Day nears for a Nov. 8 referendum on Senate Bill 5/Issue 2. Voting “No” on Issue 2 will revoke S.B. 5, the anti-worker bill supported by Gov. John Kasich and passed by the state legislature earlier this year that effectively eliminates collective bargaining for public employees.

AFL-CIO Field Communications Coordinator Andrew Richards files this report on the fight in Ohio to defeat Issue 2.

From small towns like Portsmouth on the banks of the Ohio River in the south to big cities like Cleveland bordering Lake Michigan in the north and all around the Buckeye State, union members are hitting the doors and the phone banks to make sure working families cast a “No” vote on Issue 2 Nov. 8.

Norm Wernet, director of the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, sends us this report.

In Ohio today, more than 25,000 Ohio retirees took part in a telephone-town hall meeting to discuss how Issue 2 would harm seniors across the state.

At a pancake breakfast sponsored in the town of Mason by the ironically named right-wing group, Build a Better Ohio, Fox News Channel host Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, laughingly suggested that his audience might find ways to prevent people who plan to vote against a ballot measure that would ratify the state’s anti-union bill, known as S.B. 5. The bill contains a number of anti-worker provisions aimed at public employees, rolling back collective bargaining rights and prohibiting binding arbitration for the settlement of disputes.

AFL-CIO Field Communications Coordinator Andrew Richards sends us the latest on efforts to get-out-the-vote to repeal a bill killing collective bargaining rights in Ohio.

There are only 24 days to go until Election Day, Nov. 8, but Ohio’s working families aren’t slowing down. On Saturday, nearly 1,000 union members and community activists across the state participated in walks and phone banks to talk with working families and urge them to vote “NO” on Issue 2 to repeal S.B. 5 on Election Day or through early voting. S.B. 5, which guts the collective bargaining rights of public employees, was pushed through last spring by Republican Gov. John Kasich and the Republican-controlled legislature.

Marlene Quinn wants an apology. The fiery, pro-worker Ohio great-grandmother had her image and words hijacked then doctored by the extremist groups who are fighting a citizen veto of a new law that eliminates the collective bargaining rights of 350,000 public employees.