COLUMBUS — Public employee unions ramped up their show of force on Thursday by flooding the Ohio Statehouse thousands of workers wearing red t-shirts that said ‘No on SB 5’ and chanting “Kill the bill.”

State senators held a marathon hearing on Senate Bill 5, which would gut collective bargaining rights for tens of thousands of government workers. More than 40 witnesses — both for and against — were teed up to testify.

Those in favor of the bill said management’s hands are tied by union contracts that deliver generous benefits and automatic pay raises and lead to service cuts and layoffs.

“I just don’t believe that the power that has been gained in collective bargaining is helping in education. I actually think it’s hurting us,” said Kelly Kohls, a Springboro Board of Education member who testified.

Union leaders warned that the bill jeopardizes middle class jobs and labor peace.

And union members noted that public employee units have made concessions — pay cuts, unpaid days off, and picking up more health care costs — during the economic downturn.

“Don’t go back to a time in 1947 when there was no collective bargaining and the only way you could make yourself heard was on the street,” said Herschel Sigall, general counsel of the Ohio State Troopers Association. He suggested they tweak the current law rather than ditch it.

The crowd — estimated between 3,800 and 5,000 — exceed numbers that have turned out on any piece of legislation in the last 10 years. It included 300 or so Tea Party activists who turned out in support of the bill.

“We like these people. We just can’t afford them any more,” said Ted Hoke, a General Motors retiree from Huber Heights and a Tea Party member. “I just think we need some reasonable negotiation as far as pensions and benefits for the public sector jobs. I lost my health benefits from where I used to work. I did not turn to the government to pick up the slack.”