To Governor Kasich

Governor Kasich,
With all due respect we ask you to exert all the influence you have over your colleagues on the Ohio House Finance Committee. Ask them to remove the language restricting–in fact, eliminating–rights to collective bargaining for the state’s university faculty.
The language included in the budget bill is essentially the same as that which Ohio voters rejected overwhelmingly in SB 5.
We do not ask you to change any position you may hold as to the value of unions in the public sector; rather, we ask you to consider that including this language without public debate and informed testimony, and without a vote of the people of Ohio is cynical, undemocratic and, worst of all in a democracy, profoundly and overtly unfair.
Since SB5 some of us may not know where you stand on the issue of public sector labor unions. But we submit to you, Sir, that any potential differences between us on this subject are immaterial today. The means by which this language is being slipped into law is underhanded and a disgrace to Ohio and to the very idea of a democracy. With all earnestness, Sir, we ask you to do what you can to influence the removal of this language from HB64 simply because it’s the right thing to do.
This is just WRONG, Governor Kasich, and we ask that you stand with your state’s faculty–among the most loyal employees in your state.
This is just plain wrong.
We thank you for your time. We hope for your support.