Ohio voters to decide bargaining rights for public employees (The Christian Science Monitor)

Chicago – Ohio voters this coming Tuesday will decide whether or not to uphold a controversial labor law designed to change the face of the public sector labor force in the state.

If passed, the new law will replace a 28-year-old collective bargaining law with a new version that restricts the bargaining terms for the state’s nearly 400,000 public employees, prohibits striking, and gives management the final say on such topics as health insurance.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) signed Senate Bill 5 into law in late March to replace the 1983 law with one he said would close the state’s budget gap and save the state $8 billion.

Opponents cried foul, saying the bill’s true purpose is to weaken the state’s unions, a charge made often in Wisconsin earlier this year when that state’s Republican leadership pushed through a similar bill that brought hundreds of thousands of people to the state capital to protest for weeks.

National attention on the issue is corresponding to the money filtering into the state from special interest groups.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, We Are Ohio, a national labor group opposing the bill, is leading the money drive, having raised $19 million since July. Building a Better Ohio, a group advocating the law, raised $7.6 million in that same time period.

Building a Better Ohio and other groups backing the bill reportedly have ties to billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch and to Mary Cheney, daughter of the former vice president.

Last-minute media blitzes are also spanning the state. This weekend, Ohio voters are receiving robo-calls from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) asking them to uphold the bill. On her Facebook page, Ms. Palin calls herself “a proud former union member” and said the new bill “will help restore fairness to Ohio taxpayers and help balance the budget.”

Polling suggests that public support for both the bill and Gov. Kasich is eroding.

The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Conn. released polling results last week that showed the bill failing by a 25-point margin. Last month, the same pollsters showed the bill failing by a 14-point margin. Last week’s poll also showed Kasich’s approval rating at 36 percent, a four-point drop from the earlier poll. His disapproval rating is currently at 52 percent.

The governor held rallies last week throughout the state to galvanize support for the referendum. Talking to reporters Thursday before a rally in Independence, Ohio, he said he understood that passing the bill would not be easy.

“I'm not a guy who goes and hides…. This is a tough, uphill fight,” he said.

Among the measures in the new bill:

—    Public workers are prohibited from striking; employers are required to deduct twice a day’s pay for each day of a strike, should it occur.

—    Health coverage is excluded from collective bargaining; management has the authority to decide whether or not other topics, such as starting and quitting times, and work assignments, can be negotiated.

—    Performance-based pay replaces seniority-based scales; an evaluation system is established for teachers.

—    Performance, not seniority, becomes the main factor in layoffs.

—    Employees must pay at least 15 percent of health insurance costs, and management has the option of bargaining for more. Management also determines benefits.

The law has not taken effect with the referendum pending.

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Greek cabinet meets to decide more austerity steps (Reuters)

By George Georgiopoulos and Renee Maltezou George Georgiopoulos And Renee Maltezou – Sun?Sep?18, 10:32?am?ET

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou chairs a cabinet meeting on Sunday to decide on more austerity measures to secure continued funding under an international bailout.

EU and IMF inspectors are holding a conference call with Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos on Monday to hear what measures Greece will take to plug this year's shortfall in the budget before they release an 8 billion euro ($11 billion) loan tranche it needs by October before it runs out of money.

Papandreou canceled a planned visit to the United States on Saturday to deal with the deepening crisis at home as euro zone partners made clear further funding for the debt-ridden country would hinge on adhering to agreed fiscal targets.

"The meeting is set to examine measures from public sector layoffs to more pension cuts," said a government official on condition of anonymity.

Last week, the government blamed the shortfall on a deeper-than-expected recession and decided to put a new tax on real estate in the hope of collecting about 2 billion euros annually.

But international inspectors, known as the troika, expressed doubts this one-off tax measure would work and demanded more details on how the government hoped to catch up this year and the next.

"The troika thinks the recently announced property levy will not suffice to plug the budget hole and is pressing for measures on the spending side -- cuts in public sector wages and employment," said a second government official who asked not to be named.

The conservative New Democracy opposition has criticized the government for overtaxing the economy and driving it into a tail spin.

Its leader, Antonis Samaras, called for snap elections on Saturday saying the policy mix was wrong and was not yielding any results despite peoples' sacrifices.

"A renegotiation with our lenders to restart the economy is a condition to get out of this crisis," Samaras told a news conference on Sunday.

International lenders are also concerned with the lack of political consensus in Greece on the measures needed to emerge from the crisis.

The conservatives have been buoyed by growing public discontent after two years of austerity measures and are proposing tax cuts and growth boosting measures instead.

Papandreou's socialists have a majority in parliament but political analysts say internal dissent and public unrest, such as strikes and violent protests, may force snap elections.

Lenders have long warned against one-off measures and more taxes as a way out of the crisis shaking the euro.

They have asked for urgent reforms and privatizations to make the economy more competitive and a reduction in the bloated public sector.

($1 = 0.725 Euros)

(Writing by George Georgiopoulos; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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Exclusive: Fitch to decide on U.S. ratings outlook in August (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Fitch Ratings said on Wednesday it will decide next month whether the United States deserves to keep a stable outlook on its AAA credit rating, after it concludes a review of the country's economic and fiscal outlook.

David Riley, Fitch's main analyst for the United States, said the decision will take into account a final budget agreement in Washington to reduce the country's deficit in the medium- to long-term.

"To some extent we are a little bit on hold because we want to see what comes out from the current negotiations," Riley told Reuters in an interview.

"As soon as an agreement is reached and has been announced, we will incorporate that into our analysis and we'll make a comment on the U.S. sovereign rating and its outlook -- hopefully by the mid of August."

(Reporting by Walter Brandimarte; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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