A black eye in the Buckeye: The unions flex their muscles in Ohio

The Economist  Nov 12th 2011 | COLUMBUS, OHIO | from the print edition

IN TOUGH economic times it might well seem reasonable to suggest that public-sector workers need to contribute a bit more, or to admit that their unions have extracted some unreasonably generous benefits. Even Democrats such as Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, and Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, have said public-sector workers need to tighten their belts. Yet in Ohio the public-sector reforms of the Republican governor, John Kasich, were roundly rejected in a ballot on November 8th.

Earlier this year Ohio’s legislature narrowly approved a bill that banned public-sector workers from striking and greatly restricted their collective-bargaining rights