Exuberant CWAers Celebrate Huge Workers' Rights Victory in Ohio

'When We Work Hard and Work Collectively, Anything is Possible'

CWA members, including District 4 Vice President Seth Rosen, gather early on Election Day for a final day of GOTV efforts.

Below: Later, members get ready for the vote count and celebration. 'We did it!' exclaimed Local 4310 Vice President Diane Bailey, pictured in the front right.

With Tuesday's overwhelming victory for collective bargaining in Ohio, voters showed Gov. John Kasich and other politicians that they can't get away with extremist agendas attacking workers and the financial security of working families.

By a nearly 2-to-1 margin, voters exercised a "citizens' veto" that spelled the end of Senate Bill 5, the law Kasich and Ohio GOP leaders pushed through the legislature in March to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers.

It spurred the formation of the biggest, broadest coalition of activists in Ohio history, a network that will continue to grow and fight back to "rebuild the American Dream," CWA District 4 Vice President Seth Rosen said.

"The attacks on workers' rights, civil rights, our communities and environment are all connected, and we will stand together," Rosen said. "In Ohio, union members, community groups and individual citizen activists, are building a broad movement to fight for good jobs and strong communities, over many election days, not just one."

Thousands of CWA members from public and private sector locals were among the army of volunteers who gathered a record 1.3 million signatures to put the law's repeal on the ballot. In the weeks and months leading to the election, volunteers made phone calls, knocked on doors, handed out flyers at worksites and talked to coworkers, friends and neighbors at every opportunity to get out the vote.

Their efforts generated Ohio's highest voter turnout in 20 years for an off-year election, one with no state or federal races. Between the push for early voting and Election Day get-out-the-vote efforts, turnout was 46 percent, with 82 of 88 counties voting to repeal the anti-union law.

CWA members were exuberant as the votes came in. "I just feel like, 'Wow we did it! Yes We Can, Yes We Did!" said Local 4310 Vice President Diane Bailey, who poured her time, energy and heart into the campaign.

"When we work hard and work collectively anything is possible," Bailey said. "Politicians need to know that we are awake and no more will we sit back and take the attacks on the middle class. Just thinking back and realizing how long we've been fighting and seeing the payoff make me so proud of CWA, my union."

Volunteers like Bailey made the strong turnout and huge margin of victory possible, even after Kasich's controversial order to shut down the state's early voting last Friday. Nor were voters swayed by the tens of millions of dollars worth of misleading ads and robo-calls funded by the billionaire Koch Brothers and other right-wing donors.

Coupled with the election results, a telephone survey conducted for the AFL-CIO this week shows that Kasich's political coalition has taken a major hit as a result of the Senate Bill 5 fight. Overall, the survey found that 26 percent of voters who helped elect Kasich in 2010 rejected the law. "By a 62-28 margin, Kasich defectors now disapprove of (his) job performance," the AFL-CIO said.

The survey also showed that two-thirds of voters overall, 66 percent, say they favor public sector collective bargaining. Among independents, 60 percent support it, as do a significant minority, 43 percent, of Republicans.