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A MESSAGE FOR TRAVELERS: Maria Xiguin gives a hug to Martina Grifaldo as they and others call attention to the wage complaints of service workers Wednesday at Greens Road and JFK Boulevard at the entrance to Bush Intercontinental Airport. Support workers drive courtesy carts and push wheelchairs at the airport. Grifaldo is a service worker there. Photo: Michael Paulsen / © 2011 Houston Chronicle

Holiday travelers arriving at Bush Intercontinental Airport were greeted Wednesday afternoon by about 50 protesters trying to draw attention to labor complaints there.

By Christine Dobbyn

HOUSTON (KTRK) — On Thursday, two months after Occupy Wall Street demonstrators started protesting economic inequality, protesters across the country took to the streets in solidarity. From New York City to Washington DC to Los Angeles, the scene was the same.

Hundreds marching as police stood by, ready to arrest for any infraction. And Houston was no exception. At least 12 people were arrested when the demonstrations intensified this evening.

About 300 protesters started their march Wednesday afternoon at Market Square Park. A dozen were arrested for civil disobedience as they delivered their message.

“I think in the last 30 years, I think we’ve been seeing a slow, gradual shift of wealth into a smaller and smaller minority, and finally people are getting fed up with it and they are taking it back, they are taking the streets back,” protester Sara Farris said.

The Occupy Houston crowd joined thousands of others across the country for an international day of action.

“We need to get corporate money out of the election process. Elections should be publicly funded so we know who are politicians are actually working for,” another protester said.

It was a peaceful display, but police had to keep the crowd contained and off the streets, and when they didn’t comply, they were arrested.

Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland says the organizers were in contact with them and they made manpower adjustments.

“Certainly we have appreciated the cooperation that so far we have gotten from the organizers,” McClelland said. “Two, from a resource standpoint, yes it has, because it’s something we didn’t plan for but it’s something that we’re always prepared for.”

The protesters who were arrested were taken to the city jail.

“Obviously there were other cities where more people participated, but I thought in terms of what actually happened, this protest was very peaceful; there was no violence, nothing that anyone would regret, so I thought it went very well,” said Christian Capitaine, attorney for protesters.

The protesters who were arrested were booked in the city jail. Their attorney is working to bond them out. The charge is a Class B misdemeanor for blocking a roadway or passageway.

By MIKE GLENN, Chronicle

Houston police arrested about a dozen protesters Thursday during a march that ended at a downtown bridge.

About 200-300 people affiliated with the Occupy Houston movement and other advocacy groups met at Market Square Park about 4 p.m. then moved out to their destination at the Travis Street bridge near Commerce.

When they arrived, 12 members suddenly linked arms and sat in the intersection, blocking afternoon commuters from leaving.

“A non-violent movement’s best weapon is disruption,” said Carl Gibson with Occupy Houston.

“We’re going to peacefully disrupt society and let people know that are voices are going to be heard,” Gibson said.

HPD officials said they asked the protesters to leave the intersection and took them into custody only when they chose not to.

“The vast majority of these protesters exercised their First Amendment rights peacefully. We appreciate that,” said HPD spokesman Kese Smith.

Police also arrested a woman who was not one of the dozen protesters squatting in the intersection.

“She indicated that she was going to go and join the protesters so she could be arrested,” Smith said. “An officer said, ‘No. You need to get back onto the sidewalk.’ She refused to do so.”

It wasn’t much of a secret that there would be arrests at the end of the protest march. Houston police and journalists covering the rally had already been told that was among their objectives.

“The whole world is watching,” Gibson said.

Waving signs with slogans like “Fund the Future” and “I Want to Work,” the protesters called on government officials to create jobs, end cuts to social welfare programs and hold Wall Street bankers more accountable for their actions.

“We’re just standing up for what we believe in,” said Charlene Ram with Good Jobs Great Houston, one of the protest groups at the march.

The dozen protesters arrested in the intersection will be charged with obstructing a public roadway. The woman who tried to join their ranks will be charged with interfering with the duties of a public servant.

Both are Class B misdemeanors.

One the arrests had been made, the remaining protesters moved back to Market Square Park.

There were no reports of any injuries, officials said.

mike.glenn@chron.com

SOURCE: http://blog.chron.com/newswatch/2011/11/police-arrest-dozen-protesters-near-downtown-bridge/

By Reginald Fields, The Plain Dealer

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio voters dealt a sharp rebuke to first-year Gov. John Kasich and his conservative agenda Tuesday by overwhelmingly rejecting the restrictive new collective bargaining law he championed.

“It’s clear the people have spoken,” the humbled Republican leader said from the Statehouse. “I heard their voices. I understand their decision. And frankly, I respect what the people have to say in an effort like this. And as a result of that, it requires me to take a deep breath and to spend some time to reflect on what happened here.”

The state’s labor union leaders, meanwhile, praised voters for standing up to Kasich, who they felt bullied them in his rush to create the law, known as Senate Bill 5.

“We want to thank the voters of Ohio who used their citizen’s veto to send a message that this extreme legislation was simply out of touch with the majority of Ohioans,” said Ohio Civil Service Employees Association President Christopher Mabe. “Most Ohioans believe that government runs best when front-line workers have a seat at the table. Tonight, they gave us our seat back.”

The referendum on the law, which was Issue 2 on the ballot, was defeated 61 percent to 39 percent in a major victory for unions representing the 360,000 public employees whose power the law would have significantly curtailed. And it has given Democrats, who were crushed at the polls in Ohio just one year ago, a surge of momentum heading into next year’s elections.

“Tonight we sent a message,” Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern told a crowd of Issue 2 opponents gathered at a downtown Columbus hotel. “A year ago, things didn’t work out for us. I want you to think about how you felt that night, and I want you to think about how you feel tonight.”

The divisive campaign has raised questions about whether Kasich — who has pushed through a number of controversial initiatives with the help of compliant GOP lawmakers — will have as much success next year in accomplishing his policy goals.

“I’m sure it’s going to temper us a little bit, but by and large our members are fully supportive of less government, lower taxes and giving more authority to the people,” veteran Republican state Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, of Napoleon, said Tuesday night.

Most of the GOP-controlled legislature, including the entire Ohio House, is up for election next year and might not be eager to be tied to a governor whose job approval rating has sunk to 36 percent, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll.

“I think there is no question this is a major black eye for the governor,” said Ohio State University election law professor Dan Tokaji. “He made the scaling back of collective bargaining rights really the signature issue of the first part of his administration, so this is a huge blow.

“The implications are quite significant and they really go beyond this issue,” Tokaji said. “It will be a sign of a re-emergence of the Democratic party which has used the referendum to fight back despite Republicans controlling state government.”

Kasich conceded defeat shortly before 10 p.m.

While the governor said he respects the voters’ decision, he offered a stern warning to local government leaders. Kasich said that Senate Bill 5 was about helping local governments contain their costs.

“Let me be clear, there is no bailout coming. There’s no bailout because frankly, there is no money,” Kasich said.

“For whatever reason here the voters thought these tools were too much, a lot of local governments didn’t want them,” Kasich said. “That’s OK.”

The decisive defeat was not unexpected as nearly every Issue 2 poll predicted voters would reject the law by a double-digit margin, a result that even Kasich and his Republican supporters had glumly come to expect.

Republicans, in fact, shifted much of their campaign strategy over the past 10 days from winning to limiting the margin of loss — pleading with their supporters to still vote despite the poll numbers — in hopes of trivializing a Democratic political boomerang into 2012.

But with a sizeable double-digit defeat, it didn’t work.

If campaign money is any indication — and in politics it usually is — Kasich and his supporters never had a chance.

We Are Ohio, the coalition of Democrats and major labor unions, outspent Building a Better Ohio — the yes side — by a more than 3-to-1 margin. They ran far more commercials, and they weren’t shy about soliciting outside help to raise funds.

We Are Ohio raised more than $30 million for its campaign while Building a Better Ohio raised about $7.6 million, according to recent campaign finance reports.

Republicans knew they could be headed for trouble when this summer SB5 opponents turned in a million valid signatures to qualify Issue 2 for the ballot — a record number for a referendum.

SB5 was introduced by state Sen. Shannon Jones, a Springboro Republican. But it was Kasich — who took office declaring he would change Ohio’s collective bargaining law — who championed it. He took the unusual step of visiting Statehouse hearings on the bill.

And when it appeared it did not have enough votes to clear the Senate, Kasich began lobbying senators individually in private meetings in his office. He eventually helped get the measure the one-vote margin it needed to clear the Senate. The more conservative House was an easier sell.

It all ended in about the worst case scenario for Republicans: a sizeable defeat that has left key party figures pointing fingers at each other.

The GOP has tripped into a valley after achieving a remarkable high just one year ago when Kasich became the first person to upset an incumbent Ohio governor since 1974. His victory triggered a Republican sweep of statewide elected offices and helped the GOP reclaim the Ohio House.

The pressure from an anticipated Issue 2 loss has been mounting and rose to the surface last week when Republicans began shifting the blame for Senate Bill 5 to one another.

Kasich supporters quietly blamed Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, saying the state’s top elections officer allowed Issue 2 to be worded on the ballot to benefit the no side. Others blamed the governor, saying he stubbornly employed the classic political over-reach, ramrodding major policy through while ignoring the wishes of the public.

“Republicans got too greedy and it backfired,” Tokaji said. “They went too far and there was a huge backlash against them.”

More proof the Republicans knew they would lose: they have already started working on a back-up plan. House Speaker William G. Batchelder told reporters last week to expect pieces of the 300-page law to re-emerge early next year as standalone bills.

The Oct. 25 Quinnipiac University poll showed support for requirements that public workers pay at least 15 percent of their health care costs and contribute at least 10 percent of their salary toward their pension. The poll also showed support for a provision in SB 5 that would establish a merit-based pay system.

Sen. Keith Faber, the number-two ranking Senate Republican, said the defeat of Issue 2 does not mean voters are happy with the current collective bargaining law that passed in 1983. He said the Issue 2 campaign made it clear to him the law needs to be revised.

“We need to do some of this reform,” Faber said on Monday. “What we define that to be will be the question.”

Faber, who argued in favor of Issue 2 at a half dozen debates before the election, said lawmakers should not hesitate to pursue collective bargaining reform again, despite the intense opposition from labor groups and Democrats.

“If it’s the right thing to do and we need to work on it again, that’s kind of what we get elected to do,” Faber said, adding that in the final weeks of the campaign he noticed that “people are opening up to the need for change.”

Democratic Sen. Joe Schiavoni, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate committee that heard SB5, said he expects Republicans to reintroduce the parts of the bill that polled well.

“I think there will be legislation that is brought back up to deal with public employees regarding health care, regarding pension, regarding merit pay,” Schiavoni said on Tuesday evening. “I don’t know how far they’re going to reach.”

Plain Dealer reporter Joe Guillen contributed to this story

SOURCE: http://www.cleveland.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/11/ohio_voters_overwhelmingly_rej.html

By Mitch Ackerman

Ackerman is the international executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union.

SOURCE: The Hill

LIKED THE WORK: Jacqueline Aswell, 45, of Kingwood, was fired by Primeflight over a dispute on her tip reports. Photo: Jerry Baker / HC

A company that employs wheelchair attendants and cart operators at George Bush Intercontinental Airport has been suspended from a state hiring incentive program amid a probe into claims that it required workers to report tips they didn’t receive.