Tim Burga, President of the Ohio AFL-CIO, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the Ohio State legislature’s House Joint Resolution 1.
HJR 1 aims to end a simple majority voting limit for state constitutional amendments. It would replace it with a required 60 percent vote to pass any amendment. Burga contends this is a direct attack on the democratic process.
If passed, Burga believes HJR 1 would make passing any future constitutional amendments nearly impossible. In the history of voting on previous constitutional amendments, there have only been a few of the 172 amendments that would have passed the 60 percent threshold. Burga added that HJR 1 faces a large amount of opposition throughout Ohio. Currently, there are over 240 organizations that have spoken out against the bill publicly.
Besides HJR 1, Burga discussed a recently introduced bill that deals with child labor. The new bill would allow child laborers to work until 9 p.m. or later during the school week. While Burga admits it’s less drastic than child labor bills recently introduced in other states, he still contends it will negatively impact child labor in Ohio.
Listen to the entire episode to learn more.