Ohio AFL-CIO president resigns

COLUMBUS – President Joe Rugola of the Ohio AFL-CIO, the state’s largest labor organization, is resigning at the end of the month, Rugola told the Dayton Daily News on Wednesday.

“It’s a personal decision,” said Rugola.

Rugola, 61, said he wants to spend more time with his family and also help with health issues involving his extended family.

He is leaving with a blast at new Republican Gov. John Kasich.

“This administration is part of a national ideological effort to undermine organized labor and diminish the voice of working families,” said Rugola.

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols replied in an e-mail:

“It’s overwhelmingly clear that the balance of power between Ohio’s taxpayers and the people who are their employees needs to be rebalanced to give taxpayers some relief.”

For four years, Rugola has been serving both as AFL-CIO president – without pay – and executive director of the Ohio Association of Public Schools Employees, the job he will keep and which pays about $144,000 a year.

The Ohio AFL-CIO is a federation of unions and labor organizations with 650,000 members.

The federation’s executive board will choose a successor, said Rugola.

Pierette “Petee” Talley, is the Ohio AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, the number two position.

Rugola said that he “fell short” in his goal of helping former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland win re-election but succeeded in stabilizing the “business situation” of the Ohio AFL-CIO.

He said that Kasich, who defeated Strickland, presents a challenge for organized labor and is different than previous Republican Govs. Bob Taft and George Voinovich who disagreed with unions over policies, not ideology.

Labor leaders have expressed fear that Kasich and the Republican-controlled legislature will try to repeal or modify the 1983 public employee bargaining law.

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols previously has said that the governor wants unions and union members to join his effort to turn around Ohio’s economy.

“We’re all in this together,” said Nichols. “That’s his (Kasich’s) message.”

Kasich has called for eliminating binding arbitration in police and firefighter contract disputes and ending the requirement that union-scale wages, known as the prevailing wage, be paid on public construction projects.

Also, state Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Clearcreek Twp., has said that she is drafting legislation to repeal collective bargaining for state employees and modify bargaining rights for police and firefighters.

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