Ohio Governor loses business support

Evan McMorris-Santoro  of Talking Points Memo in his article Business Breaking With Kasich Over Union Busting Bill some businesses are remembering why they became businesses and who keeps their bills paid.  They have finally figured out that it is not politicians or Corporate America but those citizens living in and around their area.  It’s that union worker and his/her family that comes in and out of their doors everyday.  They have finally come to realize that the Chamber of Commerce in their area may have the stigma of speaking for business but not their business.

The article reports that Gov. John Kasich (R) has suffered mightily for his plan to restrict the collective bargaining rights of unionized state workers in Ohio. Though the Republican-controlled state legislature passed the law, known as Senate Bill 5, and Kasich has signed it, the optics of passage have been terrible and voters have turned on their new governor less than six months after he defeated a Democratic incumbent.  In Youngstown, the CEO of a technology firm Michael Broderick publicly broke with the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce after it refused to rescind its endorsement of SB5.  Broderick wrote on March 31 in a letter to the chamber "In our strongly Democratic community, this perception clearly undermines the Chamber's all important broad support across the community."

A handful of other companies across Ohio soon followed Broderick's lead and resigned from the regional Chamber. The Chamber has also run into trouble with the county governments it serves as official economic development agency.  AFSCME has begun signing up businesses in its Proud Ohio Workers program, which calls on firms to put a sticker in their window and sign a letter signaling that they're "worker-friendly."  So far, more than 400 businesses across Ohio have signed up.”

True business owners know that only by working together can we ever hope to capture the future and it’s the patrons who adorn your doors that keep your lights on.  They are less concerned about politics and more concern about providing a good service for a good fee.   To a real business, it’s not about who has the most money and more about we all having a decent shot at a better life.  It’s time other businesses in other states follow their lead and do what’s right for this nation instead of a selected few.