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Kasich Nixes Union Option for Ohio Care Workers
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich has rescinded a pair of directives issued by his predecessor that allowed independent home health care and child-care workers doing business with the state to unionize.
In an executive order signed Friday, Kasich says a main benefit of unionization was health insurance coverage, which is now widely available elsewhere. He’s rescinding orders signed by then-Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, for home health care workers in 2007 and for child-care workers in 2008.
The president of one of the unions said she was appalled Kasich would strip workers’ rights in a unilateral move.
Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols says the argument that independent, self-employed contractors are government workers “has always been on shaky ground.”
Union contracts for the two groups expire June 30.