CLEVELAND – Unlike Wisconsin’s high-profile effort to limit collective bargaining rights for public workers, Ohio’s new law includes police officers and firefighters — who say it threatens the safety of them and the people they protect.
Opponents have vowed to put the issue on the November ballot, giving voters a chance to strike down the law. The firefighters’ union in Cleveland plans to hit the streets and help gather signatures.
Patrolman Michael Cox, a 15-year veteran of Cleveland’s police force, said Ohio overlooked the inherent risks of police and firefighting work when lawmakers included them in the bill, which passed the Legislature on Wednesday and was signed into law by Republican Gov. John Kasich on Thursday.
“We don’t run from the house fire; we don’t run from the gunshot,” Cox said. “We’re the guys that got to say, ‘OK, we’re going to go fix this problem real fast.’”
Under the Ohio plan, police and
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