Kasich refused to meet with unions back in February

By On August 20, 2011 · 6 Comments

Kasich’s fake outreach to union leaders reached a new level of ridiculousness today when he staged a fake meeting and then pretended to be outraged when no one showed up.

Union leaders clearly informed the Governor the previous day that they wouldn’t be attending his big charade but would gladly participate in discussions once the bill in question had been repealed. Still, Kasich and Republican legislative leaders showed up and sat in front of an empty table today claiming the unions had “flunked the test of showing up” and “abdicated their moral authority” by not participating in Kasich’s big theater production.

The whole thing comes across as pretty fucking ballsy on the part of the Republicans considering Kasich straight up refused to meet with the unions six months ago while SB5 was still being debated.

I’m specifically talking about Kasich’s appearance on Bill Cunningham’s show on February 28th, 2011.

During the interview, Bill asked Kasich why he wouldn’t “just meet with the unions.”

Why won’t you “get in a room with the people who are affected” by SB5, asking Bill. Why won’t you “just listen to them?”

Bill Cunningham, the ultra-conservative radio talk show host, then implored John Kasich to “Meet with them, Governor!”

Kasich responded: “I’ve listened. I’ve heard. I’ve made a decision.” Period. End of story.

Here’s the clip…

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Evangelize!
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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=160801419 Ryan Collins

    As others have pointed out, it is interesting that the police and fire unions weren’t invited to this “meeting”

  • Fotogirlcb2002

    yes , this went on — I heard the show that day and yesterday Cunningham was talking to Butler Co sheriff  Richard Jones about all this and Cunningham recalled when the governor told him he didnt need to meet with them.The Sheriff also told how he sits in and does contract talks with his people and he told that nothing has changed or will change , that negociations of contracts has always been that the cities and county and etc could and can reject offers from the unions on contracts. I would also add here that in every contract I know of with state people theres been a “NO” strike clause for years. ( this proves how little they know about current contracts) They are so uninformed , its pitiful.
    Yesterday Cunningham also asked that Shannon Jones resign her seat( she is NOT related to the sheriff) shes been quiet of late–working on her husbands local campaign–I guess.
    Sheriff Jones says what most of us out here are saying — this is a ploy on Kasich’s side.This will appear on one of his commercials — you watch and see.
    I hope he keeps on talking, hes actually helping the cause. People are not deaf nor stupid, we all remember what he said 200 days ago.This is proof theres something quite not right about him. It was also pointed out this will cost jobs not create jobs. I believe the Sheriff said hes had to layoff some people.
    I also say that the “party” is putting pressure on now, maybe thinking Ohio will remember this and replace the “R’s  with “D’s come Nov and next May and next Nov. I for one look forward to voting out these folks.

     

  • Mark Hiser

    I see two interpretations:
    1) Kasich and Company are so arrogant that they just “KNEW” the labor leaders would bow down to them and show up at the meeting.
    2) Kasich and Company think the people of Ohio are so stupid that they would not see the manipulative theatrics behind the meeting.
    Either way, Kasich and Company look bad

  • Herc

    They’re still trying the old tactic of “divide and conquer” like was talked about around the time of the debate of the bill. Remember they were going to change some things to make them more favorable for some unions over others (i.e. some Senators I believe discussed making Police and Firefighters “exempt” so to speak). The thought at that time was to hurt the unified force of the unions by basically assuming they would just attack each other since the bill wasn’t going to hurt everyone. However, that ended up not happening, the bill didn’t exclude anyone, and the police and fire unions said even if they were exempt they would still fight against it. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was yet again another attempt to separate them out in some way, thinking the unions would end up being focused on fighting with each other. Apparently the GOP hasn’t gotten the message that it’s not working?

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for posting this clip Joseph.
    It really exposes the disingenuity of Kasich on “wanting to discuss and negotiate” with the unions on SB 5.
    He didn’t want to in February, but wants to now?
    What BS.
    Only the most partisan GOP hack or willing dupe (READ: the Columbus Disgrace) doesn’t see through this charade.

  • http://plunderbund.com Joseph

    They specifically left the name tags off the table hoping to trigger distrust and questions about whether Police and Fire are somehow thinking about making a deal.  It’s not true. 

    http://www.plunderbund.com/2011/08/19/kasich-claims-unions-are-divided-union-leaders-say-thats-total-crap/

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