Ohio may prohibit workers at public universities from striking

Employees at Ohio’s public universities and community colleges would be prohibited from striking under a far-reaching bill that is likely to spark strong opposition from labor unions.

“Students pay for their instruction upfront at the beginning of a semester,” said bill sponsor Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland. “That’s a contract between the student and the state, and nothing should stand in the way of those students getting the instruction they paid for.”

Cirino, who chairs the Senate’s Workforce and Higher Education Committee, also wants to formalize how professors get evaluated (both before and after tenure) and change how all faculty at Ohio’s 14 public universities and 23 community colleges negotiate their contracts.

To do all that, he introduced Senate Bill 83 on Tuesday. The comprehensive bill would add campus workers to the list of public employees who cannot strike. Currently, first responders and corrections officers aren’t permitted.

Faculty at Wright State University went on strike for about three weeks in January 2019 over health care and pay disputes. And Youngstown State University workers went on strike in 2020 over pay disputes.

“This item ought to be off the table because it uses the students as pawns in a negotiating process,” Cirino said.

But Sara Kilpatrick of the Ohio chapter of the American Association of University Professors said labor unions representing public employees might fight those changes, just like they did when they defeated Senate Bill 5 in 2011.

That law, signed by thenGov. John Kasich, would have restricted how all public employees could collectively bargain and strike. The law never took effect because labor unions put it up for a statewide referendum vote. Ohioans rejected it 61.6% to 38.4%.

“I think you’re going to see a big pushback from labor in Ohio,” Kilpatrick said of Cirino’s new bill.

The We Are Ohio coalition of labor unions has been meeting monthly since 2011, Kilpatrick said. And they “consider a threat to any labor union a threat to all.”

Cirino’s legislation would also change how faculty are hired, evaluated, and ultimately fired from their jobs.

“To me, it’s a necessary management tool for the administration of our institutions,” Cirino said.