There was almost no question that the meeting between Republican lawmakers and union leaders wasn't going to happen. But that didn't stop Gov. John Kasich, Speaker Bill Batchelder and Senate President Tom Niehaus from showing up at the meeting site, seating themselves facing a table with empty chairs behind placards bearing the names of six of Ohio's largest public employee unions. When announcing the proposed meeting on Wednesday and inviting 10 union delegates to attend, Kasich suggested a compromise wasn't guaranteed.
"We are now standing here saying to people, 'bring your grievances to us. We will look at them.' Why would people say, 'I'm not going to talk'?"
At Friday's meeting, Kasich, who's an experienced politician, described himself as an experienced negotiator. He also said he was disappointed, and gave a hint at the direction the campaign for Issue 2 and against union leadership will go.
"I think their problem is is that they don't have a way to be reasonable. And frankly, I think in a lot of ways, and we've seen this happen before, they're selling their membership down the river. And I don't know who they are - probably some of them are not even Ohioans."
We Are Ohio, the coalition of union and progressive groups that put Issue 2 on the ballot, never intended to attend the meeting. Spokesperson Melissa Fazekas says the lawmakers were sent a letter to that effect, which said that We Are Ohio is focused on getting rid of the law, either by voters or through lawmakers.
"We believe that we have a very strong responsibility to the 1.3 million Ohioans who want to repeal this bill, and we think that the legislature should come back into session and repeal it and then we can have future conversations."
We Are Ohio is bolstered by a Quinnipiac poll last month showing Ohioans are opposed the collective bargaining reform law as a whole 56% to 32%. Convincing the 12% who are undecided to vote for Issue 2 and luring seven percent of the "no" votes to the "yes" side are almost impossible tasks with just over two months till the election. But at least one of Issue 2's opponents says he wouldn't mind seeing something happen before election day. But Republican Senator Bill Seitz of Cincinnati says the deadline to pull Issue 2 off the ballot is working against everyone.
"I just don't know if there will be time to pull that off. Certainly we could not come up with a substitute bill by August 30, but we could take those first two steps of mutual disarmament. We repeal 5, they drop the referendum, both sides are now mutually disarmed, they're back to the status quo ante."
The governor has described the demand for Senate Bill 5 to be repealed as an ultimatum. And while polls show Issue 2 is failing right now, there is polling data that shows Ohioans like some parts of the law, which might suggest to lawmakers that there would be support for passing a revised version of the reforms in Senate Bill 5 if that law is rejected this fall.}
