First – collective bargaining rights is not a civil right IF it is not available to each and every worker, union or not. Unions are on their way out; it’s an antiquated way of bullying local businesses, management and the worker. I was a union (ex) wife many years ago – in 1985 a union laborer made $18 per hour with benefits and a savings account. Union dues essentially kept stewards in the bar and their bosses holding businesses and towns hostage and workers quiet.
Ohio Representative John Barnes, Jr., a freshman Representative, testified today for Senate Bill 5 after he just voted no for the Heartbeat Bill – a bill that will save many thousands of lives in Ohio.
While listening to his testimony, he first inappropriately brought up Martin Luther King’s name; I’m still not sure how MLK has anything to do with collective bargaining rights in Ohio, but maybe it’ll come to me. I even googled MLK and collective bargaining rights and all that came up was civil rights, which of course I expected….but collective bargaining has something to do with civil rights? Well if that is your argument – civil rights – let me testify:
Sir, if indeed you argue that civil rights has anything to do with collective bargaining rights of state workers, then you should be quite aware that the civil rights of the unborn have been keenly infringed upon when you opted to vote against current anti-abortion legislation. Today, in part, you said that state workers have the civil right to have collective bargaining rights and to organize. You even elaborated by saying state workers have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Okay, then just hours before you said that, you opted not to recognize the civil rights for unborn Ohioans. In fact, took them away today when you voted NO. Unborn Ohioans do not enjoy civil rights such as the right to LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You are now just as guilty as the abortionist because you gave him or her the RIGHT to kill unborn Ohioans.
Sir, are you saying that unborn Ohioans have NO CIVIL RIGHTS but your state worker constituents do? Can you look at a pregnant woman and tell her that state workers have civil rights but her own unborn child does not?
Mr. Barnes, you have no empathy or concern for your unborn constituents. And you need to brush up on the definition of ‘civil rights’:
civil rights–plural noun; ‘rights to personal liberty established by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. constitution and certain Congressional acts, especially as applied to an individual or a minority group.’ Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved March 30, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/civil rights