Stop Gov. Kasich’s Assault on Working Families

It has been a little over a month since Ohio’s new Gov. John Kasich took office—but he and his political allies have wasted no time in pushing their partisan political agenda to attack working families.

Instead of focusing on creating jobs, Gov. Kasich is going after hard-working firefighters, teachers, nurses, and tens of thousands of other public service workers—trying to take away their voice on the job and lower wages and living standards for all of us, in Ohio and across America.

Gov. Kasich needs to stop being a deficit hypocrite and start focusing on solving problems. While Gov. Kasich tries to ram his anti-worker proposals through the state legislature, he’s wasting no time rewarding his campaign contributors: he’s calling for tax cuts for big business and wealthy individuals. He’s also raised the salaries of his top staff.

This isn’t about shared sacrifice or solving fiscal problems—this is about political payback for campaign contributors. Gov. Kasich is engaging in partisan attacks against workers and their unions. Senate Bill 5 is the most misguided example of terrible anti-worker legislation in Ohio—it’s an all-out attack on working people. The hope behind S.B. 5 is to destroy unions in Ohio—as part of a broad plan to take away bargaining rights across the country. This wrongheaded legislation does nothing to create jobs and will weaken the middle class at a time with when working families continue to struggle to make ends meet.

Gov. Kasich and lawmakers in Ohio and across America need to come up with balanced approaches that do not scapegoat workers for our economic and budget problems. Everyone, not just working families, must work together if we are to revitalize our economy, create jobs and rebuild our middle class.

Please sign our act.ly Twitter petition to @GovKasich—stand in solidarity with the thousands of Ohio teachers, nurses, firefighters, bus drivers, sanitation workers, retirees, small business leaders, community members and other public service workers who are packing the Ohio Statehouse.

Once you’ve signed our act.ly petition, here’s more you can do:

• Sign our act.ly petition to Wisconsin’s Gov. Walker, who is launching similar attacks against workers.
• If you live in Ohio, call your senator at 888-218-5931. The phone lines have been jammed, and we want to keep them that way.
• E-mail your Ohio state senator and him or her to focus on creating jobs, not attacking working families. Click here to use our easy online template, and don’t forget to customize it.
• Continue to spread the word. Use Facebook, Twitter and good old-fashioned word of mouth to make sure your friends and neighbors get involved.