A right-to-work proponent isn't sure whether Ohio will follow Michigan and Indiana in becoming right-to-work states, but he's not ruling out the idea entirely.
A December 12 article in The Cincinnati Enquirer questioned whether Ohio is the next right-to-work battlefront. While he has since backed off on the statement, the head of the Dayton-area Chamber of Commerce has been quoted as saying that the first question companies have when discussing locations involves right to work.
Meanwhile, a group called Ohioans for Workplace Freedom is trying to get the issue on a ballot, and Ohio's Senate minority leader, Democrat Eric H. Kearney of Cincinnati, says Republicans are trying to introduce right-to-work legislation next year. However, Kearney did not identify those Republicans.
Fred Wszolek of the Workforce Fairness Institute says the issue is complicated by competition with right-to-work states.
"The governor is saying he is reluctant to go there. But then, Governor Snyder in Michigan was reluctant to go there too, until a state on its border -- Indiana -- became a right-to-work state," he explains.
"Then Governor Snyder started seeing that a lot of his calls to businesses about wanting to build new plants weren't getting returned, but the governor of Indiana's were. Michigan has long had to compete with right-to-work states, but they were [states] in the South."
Wszolek says if businesses start relocating from Toledo, Ohio, to Monroe, Michigan -- cities a mere 20 miles apart -- so they can be in a right-to-work state, the governor of Ohio is going to have to consider changes.
Last week, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed right-to-work legislation into law.