(THE CENTER SQUARE) – Ohio ranks below nearly all of its neighbors and received one of the lowest grades available in a new report that ranks labor laws, public union membership and worker freedom across the country.
The Commonwealth Foundation, a Pennsylvania free market think tank, gave Ohio a D grade in the recent release of its report examining government union membership following a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended forced unionism for government workers.
The report also graded states based on their union policies, with right-leaning policies receiving higher grades. Multiple states had significant changes in recent years.
For instance, Virginia dropped from A+ to C for instituting collective bargaining, while Arkansas jumped from C to A+ for banning it. Missouri’s labor reforms were officially struck down, moving the state from B to C.
Ohio’s grade, according to the report, was based on it being legal for teachers and general government workers to strike, not having paycheck protection, not being a right-to-work state and allowing government employees to collectively bargain wages, fringe benefits, hours and other working conditions.
“As a native Buckeye, I celebrate the Ohio State’s decades-long domination of Big Ten football. But in terms of worker freedom, Ohio has fallen behind its Midwestern peers,” said Nathan Benefield, the Commonwealth Foundation’s director of policy analysis.
Indiana received an A+, while Michigan, Kentucky and West Virginia each received a grade of B. Pennsylvania also received a D.
A little more than a decade ago, Ohio tried a significant public sector labor reform initiative, similar to one passed in Wisconsin that required public employees to pay more for their pensions and health care and limited their ability to collectively bargain.
Ohio’s attempt, which would have also limited collective bargaining for the state’s 400,000 public employees, was struck down by a voter referendum in 2011.
The report showed the top four public labor unions – American Federation of Teachers; American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; National Education Association; and the Service Employees International Union – lost nearly 219,000 members since the Janus v. AFSCME ruling.
