Ohio Public Employees

Federal

• Minimum Wage– Senators Sanders and Murray and Representatives Scott and Ellison are going to introduce the Raise the Wage Act, the new federal minimum wage bill.  If enacted, this legislation would raise the federal minimum wage to $9.25 this year and increase it over the next seven years until it reaches $15 an hour in 2024.  

• American Health Care Act (AHCA)– According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the revised Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act will leave 23 million more people uninsured in 2026 than if that act, also known as Obamacare, were to remain in place. The GOP bill would also reduce the deficit by $119 billion over 10 years. The CBO’s assessment shows that the deficit would fall and premiums would fall for some Americans, but the report also raises potential concerns about the bill. The agency reports that the bill could destabilize individual insurance markets in some states, leaving unhealthy Americans unable to buy insurance. The bill is currently in the Senate, where different groups are looking to make further changes to the bill. Ohio Senators Portman and Brown say they oppose the bill as passed by the house.

• Trump Budget– Last Tuesday, the Trump Administration released its first full budget which proposes a staggering $1 trillion in cuts to a broad swath of non-defense programs, hurting working families and dragging down our economy. The proposal decimates programs that help families afford basics like healthcare, put food on the table, and keep a roof over their heads, while at the same time undermining our public education system, making it harder for working families to afford college, and putting our environment at risk—all to fund a deportation force, build a border wall and give tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations. Specifically, Trump’s budget:

o   Takes away healthcare from children, seniors, and people with disabilities: Trump’s budget decimates Medicaid with cuts of $610 billion over ten years, on top of the $1 trillion Medicaid cut in the House Republican healthcare bill.

o   Breaks his promise to preserve Social Security: Trump’s budget cuts $72 billion from Social Security income support and disability and other disability programs, which help seniors and people with disabilities replace lost wages when they fall on hard times. 

o   Pursues mass deportations of hardworking immigrant families: Trump budget spends  $1.5 billion on additional detention bed space and deportations, $2.6 million to start building a wall along the U.S. Mexico border, and $300 million to recruit and hire new immigration agents. The budget would also deny the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to households where any family member lacks a social security number

o   Takes away food assistance and undermine the economic security of children and other vulnerable Americans: Trump’s budget cuts the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) by an unprecedented 25% – almost $200 billion over 10 years – and  the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF) by $21 billion over 10 years.

o   Puts the care and healthy development of children at risk: While the Trump budget maintains funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and Head Start, it calls for eliminating the CCAMPIS program, which funds child care for parents enrolled in college, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers after-school program and the Pre-school Development Grant Program. 

o   Puts the dream of higher education out of reach for millions, including dedicated public servants: Trump’s budget steals $3.9 billion from the Pell Grant reserve fund and freezes the maximum award so inflation will chip away at the program’s effectiveness.  It also phases out subsidized loans for education loan borrowers while they’re still in college, which could cost borrowers an additional $27 billion, and eliminates the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program for faculty, social workers, and of others who have dedicated their life to public service.  

o   Cuts funding for job training and other job assistance programs: Trump’s budget makes a 20% cut to the Department of Labor including a 43% cut to key job training programs funded under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) . This could cause 571,000 workers to lose access to critical job training, career development, and job search assistance services. 

o   Takes infrastructure money away from state and local governments: Trump’s budget makes cuts to the Highway Trust Fund and eliminates the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants — all to fund tax breaks for Wall Street elites under the guise of an infrastructure plan.

o   Undermines our public education system: Trump’s budget cuts $8 billion from the U.S. Department of Education, an overall reduction of 13 percent, while spending about $400 million to expand charter schools and vouchers for private and religious schools, and another $1 billion to push public schools to adopt choice-friendly policies.

o   Takes away affordable housing: Trump’s budget makes deep cuts to rental assistance that would eliminate housing vouchers for more than 250,000 lower-income households.

Ohio

• Pension Update-The School Employees Retirement System has proposed making changes to its system of annual cost of living (COLA) increases. Currently, SERS retirees receive a 3% COLA increase each year. The SERS Board would like to freeze these increases for all retirees for the next two years, then tie the increase to the consumer price index (CPI), capped at 2.5%. Both the Ohio Senate and House have introduced bills, SB 151 Hite and HB 242 Carfagna, to allow SERS to make their COLA increases optional, and tie them to the CPI, capped at 2.5%. These changes could also be added as amendments to the State Budget Bill.

ACTION ALERT: Join SEIU 1199 along with our brothers and sisters from AFSCME and OAPSE to protest these changes to the School Employees pension system. Together, we will tell our lawmakers to PROTECT OUR PENSIONS!

When: Wednesday June 7, 12:30-2pm

Where: Statehouse, Capitol Square. Meet at the Sheraton Courtyard facing State Street. At 1:00pm, we’ll line the path legislators take to go to Session on the South Steps of the Statehouse. At 1:30 we’ll walk two blocks to SERS Headquarters and demand our voices are heard by the new Executive Director.

These employees and retirees worked hard to earn their pensions. Together, we can stop the legislature from taking away this important increase, meant to help families cover their bills amid the rising cost of basic necessities.

• State Budget-This week Senators will submit their amendment for consideration in the State Budget Bill. SEIU 1199 has been working closely with key members in the Senate to ensure make sure amendments offered are within the interests of our members, their families and their communities.

o   Specifically, a budget amendment will be offered by several members of the Senate to include our Parole officers in a special OPERS pension plan for law enforcement officers.

West Virginia

• Right-to-Work (is Wrong)-A date has been set for arguments regarding the future of West Virginia’s right-to-work law. The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals will hear Patrick Morrisey, Attorney General v. West Virginia AFL-CIO, et al., on September 5, the day after Labor Day. The Legislature passed Senate Bill 1 in February 2016, overriding a veto by then-Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. The West Virginia Workplace Freedom Act went into effect July 1. The law would have prohibited requiring workers being union members or paying union dues in order to be employed but has been on hold since a judge ordered an injunction on the legislation.

• Budget-The State Budget Bill was introduced and had a first reading on Wednesday May 25. The legislature is currently in recess until June 5.

Kentucky

• Right-to-Work (is Wrong)– The Kentucky State AFL–CIO and Teamsters Local 89 jointly filed suit in Franklin Circuit Court seeking injunctive relief from enforcement of unfair and discriminatory provisions of House Bill 1 – The Kentucky Right to Work Act. Plaintiffs believe that HB 1 violates the Kentucky Constitution and is bad for Kentuckians. Plaintiffs are confident the Kentucky courts will invalidate this pernicious statute, will restore to unions and companies in Kentucky the freedom to bargain to preserve strong unions as they have done successfully for many decades, and will halt this effort to drive down Kentucky wages.

Federal

Budget

• Trump administration will release their budget blueprint on Tuesday, May 23, which will build on the “skinny budget” released in March. 
• There are indications that Tuesday’s Trump budget will propose an additional $800 billion in cuts over 10 years to means-tested, mandatory programs like Medicaid, food stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Supplemental Security Income, and child nutrition programs.
• These proposed cuts would be on top of the $880 billion Medicaid cutin the Republican House-passed healthcare bill and the $54 billion of cuts already proposed in the skinny budget—all to pay for a border wall and tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

ACA Repeal/Replace

• The Congressional Budget Office score on the AHCA will come out next week, and will contain with details on how the bill passed by the House will impact each state.
• Despite the chaos in the Trump Administration, groups of Senators continue to meet on creating a Senate repeal/replace bill. Medicaid funding caps for the states, an eventual end to Medicaid expansion and cuts to the program itself remain on the table.
• Republican leadership want a new bill by July Recess

Ohio

• Lobby Day Success! Healthcare, State and Public Members from across the state came together for a Day of Action at the Ohio Statehouse to speak with elected officials about the issues facing their communities, their workplaces and their families. We also heard presentations about the threat of Right to Work (is Wrong) policies in Ohio and what members can do to push back against false messaging.
• Our Lobby Day participants made Republican leaders nervous with their presence at a hearing on a bill to sunset and possibly privatize state agencies. House Bill 51 was up for a vote in the House State and Local Government Committee. To avoid the public eye, Republican leaders scheduled the hearing in the smallest hearing room in the Statehouse, and “technological difficulties” prevented our members from listening to committee in the overflow room.
• Budget– The Senate continues to hold hearings on the biennial budget bill. The Senate must submit their first round of amendments to the bill by May 31.

Action Alert: The Ohio Nurses Association is holding this rally to bring attention to the dangerous practice of mandatory overtime for nurses.
Where: Ohio Statehouse, West lawn along High Street
When: Wednesday, May 24 at 3 p.m.
Why:

• We need to eliminate the dangerous practice of mandatory overtime and its impact on providing safe care to patients.
• Patients have died from errors caused by fatigued nurses
• Nurses have died from this practice driving home drowsy and falling asleep at the wheel

Facts:

• Across Ohio, nurses are being forced to work 14, 16 and even 24 hours while physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted.
• Statistics show that nurses working over 12.5 hours are 3x more likely to make an error, contributing to medical errors being the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States.

Let’s join together and tell Ohio’s lawmakers that patients and nurses deserve better. Ohioans deserve safe, quality care. Together we can make Ohio the 19th state to outlaw the dangerous practice of mandatory overtime.

West Virginia

• Extraordinary Session-The West Virginia Legislature was unable to pass a balanced state budget during regularly scheduled session without the Governor’s veto. After a 10 day recess, the legislature was called back by the Governor on May 16 for “Extraordinary” Session. The legislature can only work on the state budget and a small number of bills impacting the state budget.
• The Legislature must pass a new state budget by the end of the 2017 fiscal year, June 30, or face consequences of a shutdown and interrupted services.