Actions speak louder than words and a position on Senate Bill 5 is one of those galvanizing quiz questions candidates will be asked for years to come by union bosses to decide who to lend their financial muscle to.
So, we’ll hear lots of postures by candidates- who have zero influence on the issue, but will use it to get in good graces.
Like Dayton City Commissioner Matt Joseph- who has been nearly silent on the City Commission for seven years- but now has a voice as election time rolls around:
Dayton City Commissioner Matt Joseph stood in solidarity with members of the city’s four unions at the rally. Joseph, a Democrat, called this a time to work with public servants, not against them. Collective bargaining, he said, is an incentive for labor and management to communicate.
“In times of economic crisis you’ve got to encourage people to work together,” he said. “The City Commission hasn’t always agreed 100 percent with our unions, but we’ve always been able to talk about it.”
via Lehner asks teachers to help lawmakers ‘figure out a system’ [1].
Has Joseph done anything or said anything at all to try to solve some of the issues he was elected to solve? In the midst of the “times of economic crisis” he sat idly by as former City Manager Rashad Young passed a back dated pay raise for City Management- and himself- without three votes on the City Commission. [2] Joseph did nothing.
Joseph has been nearly silent on how to solve the Civil Service disaster that is putting our entire city in jeopardy by not being able to hire safety forces- and yet, he has time to come out and talk in support of collective bargaining?
This is a nothing but a photo-op, money grab by a politician with zero track record to stand on. Yet, he’s already endorsed by the Democratic Party [3]– and has union backing.
If we took the campaign money out of the hands of special interests- maybe we’d have politicians who worked for us instead of these powerful lobbies. I’ve never accepted money from corporations, special interests, unions, PACs or political parties- because I want to represent the people who elect me. Sadly- that message doesn’t seem to have the ability to get out without a lot of money- and I’m not very good at asking people to buy true, honest leadership.
SB5 is a bad idea for many reasons- but, the solutions have very little to do with collective bargaining. Unlike talking suits like Joseph, I have written my position on it for all to see and discuss: The collective bargaining clusterduck [4]
Try to find that- or anything resembling an idea on Matt Joseph’s website: Matt Joseph “A New Leader for a better Dayton” [5] which quite appropriately has this on the welcome page- “The Issues…. Under construction.”
Seven years in office…. all one big political grandstand- and zero action.
Yet, that’s what we’ve elected, not just once- twice. Don’t let it happen a third time.