Ohioans Would Repeal Law Limiting Government Unions, Poll Says

A majority of Ohio voters oppose a law limiting collective bargaining for public employees that will be the subject of a Nov. 8 referendum, a Quinnipiac University poll showed.

Fifty-one percent of voters would repeal the law known as Senate Bill 5 that first-term Republican Governor John Kasich signed in March, compared with 38 percent who would keep it, according to results released today. Still, the margin of opposition was higher in July, when 56 percent backed repeal, according to the poll.

“Backers of SB 5 have only six weeks to make up the difference, although public opinion appears to be moving in their direction,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Connecticut, said in a release.

The law allows public employees to bargain only for wages, hours and working conditions, bans strikes and sets minimums for employee pension and health-care contributions.

We Are Ohio, the campaign backing repeal of the law, and Building a Better Ohio, the group supporting it, are airing television commercials in the Buckeye State.

The We Are Ohio ads say “Columbus politicians” are targeting police officers, firefighters, teachers and nurses, while the Building a Better Ohio ads emphasize the “reasonable reforms” of requiring public workers to pay at least 15 percent of their health-care insurance and 10 percent toward pensions.

Ohio voters support requiring government employees to pay more toward health care and pensions and oppose banning them from striking and bargaining over insurance, the poll found.

The survey of 1,301 registered voters by land lines and cell phones was conducted Sept. 20-25 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points, the university said.