Protests To Defend Labor Rights Spread to Ohio. Interview with Ohio Union Director Donald Conley

Run time: 04:31 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkb-5h7F-TQ   Posted on YouTube: February 22, 2011 By YouTube Member: mediagrrl9 Views on YouTube: 244   Posted on DU: February 23, 2011 By DU Member: democracy1st Views on DU: 676

 
In Ohio, tens of thousands are expected to pour into the state capitol of Columbus February 22 for a rally against Senate Bill Five. The measure would require state employees to abandon collective bargaining, pay more toward health insurance premiums, and switch to a so-called "merit-based" pay system. Republican Governor of Ohio John Kasich has said public employees who go on strike should lose their jobs. Democracy Now! interviews Donald Conley, Operations Director for Ohio Civil Service Association, the union that represents 34,000 state employees in Ohio, about the effort to oppose the bill.

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...and Thurgood rocks too! Nice avatar.
Wonder what would he tell Obama?

and heard what he had to say about Gov. John Kasich's Wall Street/Lehman Brothers career marketing/selling fraudulent derivatives such as those sold to Ohio's teachers' pension fund. I also know a couple of people who are receiving teachers' pensions from the Ohio fund and am familiar with the cutbacks in benefits that have already been forced on some of the retirees.

I'm wondering whether the push to end the collective bargaining rights of state employees might be in part (by no means totally)an effort to set a stage on which the state pension funds can drastically cut the benefits of those who are about to retire and have already retired. If Kasich could do that, he might escape criticism about the alleged role of folks from Wall Street including, possibly, himself in cheating the teachers' pension and other similar funds. The fraud would not become as much of an issue. Cutting the pensions once again would be a done deal that no one could question.

As Matt Taibbi points out in his Rolling Stone article and in the interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, a lot of people who worked on Wall Street and dealt with derivatives should be investigated and possibly charged under criminal law. It is quite astounding, but if you cash a check for someone you don't know well, and it turns out that someone is a crook, let's say stealing the identities of others for profit, you can end up in jail. But if you commit the kind of fraud that the companies that sold the derivatives committed, you walk free to enjoy your profits.

I believe there is a tie between the derivatives, investment and bank fraud and the attack on the government employees and their unions.

First they stole the money now they want public employees to pay for their well coordinated act of theft. And the Obama DOJ is complicit.

How could the people of Ohio be stupid enough to elect Kasich? The reason is simple. The people of Ohio are under the mistaken notion that Barney Frank, Fanny Mae, bad borrowers and the Community Reinvestment Act caused the economic meltdown. We all know where they got that idea -from the actual thieves that stole the money.

And the only way I know to get the information to the voters is to put it on the internet. The voters who need to hear that message do not watch MSNBC. We just have to keep talking to each other and hope that people happen on the information we have to give them.

our U.S. Justice Department would be investigating and charging many of these "elected officials." Where is the rule of law for the ruling elite?

It simply no longer applies to the wealthy. It simply doesn't. Just look what has happened to this nation since the false 2000 election. It has been straight off a cliff since then.