Ohio and the 'Big Labor vs. Taxpayers Index"

From OneNewsNow:

Two public policy organizations have joined together for a new initiative that aims to help taxpayers hold government unions accountable.

The "Big Labor vs. Taxpayers Index" is the collaboration of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and Crossroads GPS. They say it gives policy makers, members of the media, the business community, and the public a "clear picture" of the union powers and privileges across the states.

"What we did is take each state's collective bargaining laws, binding arbitration laws, paycheck protection laws, [and] open meeting laws, and we had up to 11 points, which equal to about 1,100 data points that we ranked each state on whether they were for big labor or they were for the taxpayer," Trey Kovacs, CEI labor policy analyst explains of the information available.

Ohio ranks 21 - putting us in the middle of the pack with an index score of 19 out of a possible 40, including scores on:

■Collective Bargaining
■Paycheck protection laws
■Secret ballot protections and card check
■Binding Arbitration
■Open meetings laws
■Government union density
■Public employee pension underfunding
■Project labor agreements
■Strike policy for government employees

Some interesting facts from the score:

Pension Liability - Total $171.1 billion - Per household $2,051

Union Membership Density:
Total-13.7%
Private Sector-8.4%
Public Sector-43.1%

Right to Work:
Forced unionism

For more information on the ranking and the score, go here.