Governor and Lt. Governor Oppose Issue 4

Strickland won't support sick days mandate

Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher said minutes ago they will not back the sick days mandate that has been pushed to the November ballot by one of their major union supporters, the SEIU. “We cannot support the paid sick-day ballot initiative,” they said in a joint statement. “While we would hope that all Ohio businesses would make paid sick days available to their employees whenever possible, we believe that this initiative is unworkable, unwieldy and would be detrimental to Ohio's economy, and we will be opposing it and asking Ohioans to oppose it as a result.”

Strickland was unable to work out a compromise with business and union leaders over the ballot initiative, which would require every business with 25 or more employees to offer seven sick days to full-time employees. Business groups, particularly those representing small business, said that any proposal with even one mandated sick day was unacceptable. They and GOP leaders have called the issue a “job killer.” Dale Butland, spokesman for the coalition pushing the issue, blamed business leaders for a failure of a compromise, calling them "hypocritical ideologues who oppose allowing anyone but themselves to earn such a benefit."