Politics & Government
Petition Signing in Stow for SB 5 Repeal Thursday
Firefighters, police and union members rally for the repeal of the controversial bill.
Firefighters, police officers and union members will meet Thursday, June 9 at the , at 4157 Hudson Dr., to collect signatures for the repeal of the much debated .
Mark Hodson President of the Stow Firefighters International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) Local 1662 said that while they disagree with SB 5, this petition is to use the democratic process.
"This petition is to allow the voters to decide, at the ballot box, if this is a good piece of legislation or not," Hodson said. "Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to stop by and sign our petitions. Since we hope to have this voted on by the people, you must be a registered voter to sign, and must sign the petition in the county you live."
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This petition is not merely a Stow issue, but one that is happening around the entire state of Ohio.
"We Are Ohio along with union leaders and members from across the state have been out gathering petitions, holding rallies and getting the word out about SB 5," Hodson said. "We strongly hope that this is repealed. As firefighters we have asked the question, 'why?'"
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To many, it was an attempt to fix something that wasn't broken.
"Collective bargaining works," he said. "Why now ... and why did this get pushed through so quickly?"
Melissa Fazekas, spokeswoman for We Are Ohio, said that so far, volunteers have collected more than 214,000 signatures of the 231,149 signatures needed. The goal is to collect around 450,000 (or 3 percent of the total vote of 44 out of 88 counties in the last gubernatorial election) to ensure the validity of all signatures, she said.
"Overall people have been phenomenal," Fazekas said. "We have more than 10,000 volunteers on the ground, which is an unprecedented number for this kind of campaign."
Signatures must be in by June 30 for this issue to make it to the ballot.
The rally is scheduled from 1 to 7 p.m. today. Interested parties do not even have to get out of their car to sign the petition as there will be volunteers in the parking lot ready to collect signatures, Hodson said.