Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed Senate Bill 5 into effect at about 7:20 p.m., which will limit collective bargaining rights for 360,000 public employees across the state.
After the Ohio Senate passed the Ohio House of Representatives revisions to the bill last night, the bill was delivered to Kasich’s office today to be signed.
Although Kasich was expected to sign the bill into effect April 6, the governor sent out campaign fundraising email stating he would sign today.
In his email, Kasich said, “There is a reason that the union bosses opposed these changes; because it strips power from the union leaders and returns it to the taxpayers and workers. But make no mistake; we are fighting to save Ohio.”
The three and a half hour Ohio House debate last night ended in a 53-44 vote in favor of the bill, which was revised by House Republicans from the original bill, which passed in the Senate 17-16 in a concurrence vote March 2.
The revised bill removes a proposed penalty of fines and possible imprisonment for public employees who strike. It also allows unions to bargain for safety equipment, according to the revised legislation. The original bill still allowed for unions to bargain salaries.
The bill requires public workers to pay at least 15 percent of their health insurance and limits the issues that can be bargained.Unions can negotiate wages and certain working conditions but not health care, sick time or pension benefits.
It eliminates automatic pay increases and replaces them with merit raises or performance pay. Workers would also be banned from striking.
A ballot challenge would stall implementation of the law that Republicans championed as vital to Ohio's economic future. Backers have 90 days to gather 231,148 valid signatures from at least half Ohio's 88 counties to get it on the fall ballot.
Kasich has said his $55.5 billion, two-year state budget counts on unspecified savings from lifting union protections to fill an $8 billion hole.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report
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