Collective Bargaining

In the early years, OCSEA leaders became frustrated by the legal battles needed in the civil service fight. Legislative changes were just as frustrating because pay raises and employee policies could be reversed by a simple re-vote or change in administration.

In the 1960's, OCSEA began looking seriously at collective bargaining as a solution. Slowly, OCSEA gained members-only contracts for employees in a number of departments such as ODOT, MH and MR. But even these contracts were of limited scope. The demand for full-scale public employee collective bargaining grew.

In the 1970's OCSEA introduced its first collective bargaining legislative proposal. Several such bills were passed by the General Assembly only to be vetoed by Gov. James Rhodes. Not to be defeated, OCSEA kept up the pressure. A new bill was successfully introduced in 1982 and signed into law by Gov. Celeste, July 6, 1983.

Nineteen eighty-six marked the first time that state employees had a comprehensive contract that would govern every aspect of their working lives, an accomplishment that was only possible due to the immense effort that stretched back nearly five decades to James Bowman and his original dream of an organization that would fight for public workers.

The union has fought back a few attacks on the collective bargaining law during the last decade. The latest attack comes from Rep. Tom Brinkman (R-Cinci), who introduced HB 314 this summer. The proposed legislation is essentially a right to work bill.