For Release: February 14, 2025

Contact: Karolyn Isenhart - 216.621.9750

STATEMENT ON RIGHT TO WORK AND S.B.1



Not surprisingly, Republicans in the Ohio House are pushing for co-sponsors of a union-busting right to work bill. Union workers are the ones who construct our buildings, but they also serve inside those buildings as teachers, fire fighters, nurses, secretaries, janitors, public defenders, and so much more. And, despite what billionaire inheritors like Elon Musk and Donald Trump believe, it was not people like them who built this country, it was our union brothers and sisters who built the American middle class.

At the same time, Republicans in the Ohio Senate showed us they don’t care about the will of their constituents by pushing through S.B.1 which attacks higher education in Ohio. Despite eight hours of in-person opposition testimony and after more than 800 Ohioans submitted testimony against S.B. 1, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jerry Cirino-R Kirkland, called those numbers “irrelevant.” This dangerous bill passed through the Senate.

Now this un-American bill awaits a vote in the House. Dubbed the “Higher Education Destruction Act” it will not only make our students dumber by imposing a curriculum that has no connection to reality, but it will negatively impact the status of our highly-ranked and nationally respected state –Ohio has nine schools in the top 200 public institutions in the U.S., the 4th most in the country. This bill suppresses free speech and thought, monitors professors who don’t comply, and harms unions. If cities like Cleveland have any hopes of economic ascendancy, it starts with young people receiving the finest education possible, and this bill moves our state backwards.

Thus, we as Democrats must vigilantly work at the following:

• Protecting and expanding union rights at ALL times
• Defending our students’ right to learn and teachers’ right to teach
• Contacting your state representatives and make sure they know where you stand

One of the best ways to combat Republican extremism is to remind everyone in earshot that the Democratic Party is the party of workers and has been for nearly a century.

David Brock

Chair

Cuyahoga County Democratic Party

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