This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-us-canada-15649745

The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
Ohio vote repeals union limit law Ohio vote repeals union limit law
(about 2 hours later)
Labour activists are celebrating the defeat in a special referendum of a law limiting collective bargaining powers of Ohio unions. Ohio voters have struck down a law limiting unions' collective bargaining powers, dealing a blow to Republicans in a crucial election swing state.
Tuersday's href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2011/by_county/OH_Page_1108.html?SITE=AP&SECTION=POLITICS" >vote on the law, which had not yet taken effect, attracted a high turnout for a non-presidential ballot. The measure, which had not yet taken effect, was rejected by 62% to 38% in Tuesday's special referendum, according to preliminary results.
More than $30m (£18.6m) from both labour and business interests were poured into the vote, which was watched across the US. The law would have curbed bargaining rights for 350,000 public employees.
Ohio Governor John Kasich toured the state to promote keeping the law. Labour unions said the result was a barometer of the national mood ahead of next year's presidential vote.
Under the terms of the law some 350,000 unionised public workers in Ohio would have seen their collective bargaining rights limited. Democrats hope it heralds the beginning of an industrial Midwest backlash against the Republicans swept into office in 2010's midterm elections.
The bill included a ban strikes, scrapped binding arbitration and dropped promotions based solely on seniority. No Republican has won the White House without Ohio, and only two Democrats have done so in more than a century.
It did allow bargaining on wages, working conditions and some equipment. But in a warning to Democrats, voters in the state also approved a measure on Tuesday against President Barack Obama's healthcare law.
Echoes of Wisconsin The approval of the ballot measure banning people from being required to buy health insurance was largely symbolic.
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, on the largest US unions, hailed the result, which he said was sealed by Republican and Democrat voters in both urban and rural areas. In other election results around the country on Tuesday:
  • Voters in Mississippi, in the heart of the Bible Belt, rejected a measure that would have defined life as beginning at conception, banning virtually all abortions and some forms of birth control
  • Kentucky's Democratic Governor was easily re-elected despite high unemployment, budget shortfalls and a wave of attack advertisements
  • In another boost for incumbent parties, Mississippi voters followed the script by overwhelmingly electing Republican Phil Bryant as governor
  • In Arizona, Republican state Senator Russell Pearce, controversial sponsor of a hardline anti-illegal immigration law, lost a recall election to a moderate Republican who said the incumbent's policies had damaged the state's image
Ohio's labour law would have included a ban on strikes, scrapped binding arbitration and dropped promotions based solely on seniority. It would have permitted workers to negotiate wages, but not pensions or healthcare benefits.
More than $30m (£18.6m) from both labour and business interests were poured into Ohio's vote.
Governor John Kasich, who had toured the state to promote keeping the law, acknowledged defeat in a statehouse news conference.
"It's clear that the people have spoken," he said. "They might have said it was too much, too soon."
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, one of the largest US unions, said the result had been sealed by Republican and Democrat voters.
"Ohio sent a message to every politician out there: go in and make war on your employees rather than make jobs with your employees, and you do so at your own peril," he said."Ohio sent a message to every politician out there: go in and make war on your employees rather than make jobs with your employees, and you do so at your own peril," he said.
The Ohio issue has echoes of a bitter legislative battle in the state of Wisconsin earlier in 2011. Ohio's labour law would have gone further than a similar one in the state of Wisconsin by including police officers and firefighters. In June the supreme court in Wisconsin upheld that law.
In June the state Supreme Court upheld a law stripping most Wisconsin employees of their collective bargaining rights, appearing to end months of bitter debate and protest.
The Wisconsin law, which also requires state government employees to pay more for their healthcare and pensions, was proposed last winter by the state's newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker.