State Rep. Tracy Maxwell Heard Rails against So-Called "Right to work" Bills

COLUMBUS - Today, House Democratic Whip and State Rep. Tracy Maxwell Heard (D-Columbus) denounced two requests for co-sponsors for State Rep. Ron Maag’s (R-Lebanon) so-called “right to work” bill for public sector employees, and State Rep. Kristina Roegner’s (R-Hudson) version for private sector employees.

 “It seems that the Grand Old Party is going back to its old ways of thinking and its old bag of tricks with this controversial and misleading attack on the middle class,” said Rep. Heard. “I think the House Republicans need a lesson in semantics that NO means NO. The citizens of Ohio already said no to a reprehensible bill that attacked working and middle class Ohioans. That was not a conditional ‘no’ and it was not a message to try again. It was simply a NO. The House GOP has seems to have forgotten the lessons of November 8, 2011.”

 These draft bills appear to follow in the vein of Senate Bill 5 from the 129th General Assembly, which was voided by a referendum vote on November 8, 2011. Both co-sponsorship requests were sent at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 30, with deadlines for co-sponsors to respond by 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May 1. The bills will most likely be introduced in the Ohio House on Wednesday, May 1.