The bill that would ban most mandatory diversity training in higher education is headed back to that chamber to approve changes the House made before passing it mostly along party lines.
Republicans have said Senate Bill 1 would combat what they see as liberal indoctrination at public universities. But labor unions are ready to fight it.
"This is really the the most significant undercutting of collective bargaining since that was attempted with Senate Bill 5 back in 2011," said Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union which represents K-12 teachers as well as some higher education faculty.
Senate Bill 5 sought to restrict collective bargaining rights for 400,000 Ohioans in public sector unions, including teachers and law enforcement. Unions came out in force against it and then mounted a campaign to repeal the law, submitting a record 1.3 million signatures to put it on the fall 2011 ballot. Nearly two-thirds of voters approved overturning it.
"Even though there isn't a direct impact on unions like police and fire, organized labor was absolutely unified in opposing Senate Bill 1," DiMauro said. "We do recognize this principle that an attack on one is an attack on all, and you start turning back the clock and you start taking away a voice from one segment of public employees in the state, where's that going to go next?"
DiMauro said while supporters of SB 1 will note that faculty strikes can delay graduation for students who have invested years and hundreds of thousands of dollars, there have been very few strikes since the collective bargaining law began in 1984.
"I think they're trying to use worst case scenarios as a way to instill fear in people and kind of create this hysteria around that issue. The reality is that faculty strikes, just like all public employee strikes in Ohio since the passage of the collective bargaining law, are exceedingly rare," DiMauro said. "The last one that that I remember we were part of, was at Youngstown State. It lasted, I think, for three days. But it was an important opportunity for, faculty to be able to advance their interests. And interestingly, during that strike, they had significant support from students on campus. And that's what helped drive a settlement."
There were two strikes by Youngstown State faculty in the last 25 years - one in 2020 for two days, and one in 2005 for one day. Both were centered on pay. Faculty at Wright State University in Dayton went on strike for almost three weeks in 2019 over pay and health insurance.
Opponents are pressuring Gov. Mike DeWine to veto Senate Bill 1. But when asked on March 14 about his intentions with the bill, DeWine said, "I think I'll probably sign it.”
When asked whether unions will be mobilized as they were in 2011 if that happens, DiMauro was noncommittal.
"I think we're looking at all our options, to see what we're going to do and where we're going to go next," DiMauro said. "We are constantly talking with other unions about this. So it's a little too early to say on that part."
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