Project Mayhem, Part I: SEIU, Lies and Videotape

“The first rule of Project Mayhem: You do not ask questions.” -Tyler Durden, Fight Club

On November 8, Ohioans vote on Issue 2 – which determines the fate of SB 5, signed in March by Gov. John Kasich. The bill offers to save $191 million annually at the state level and millions more at the local level by asking public employees to contribute merely 10 percent to their pensions and 15 percent towards their health care (as opposed to the average 31 percent that private employees contribute).

While actually preserving collective bargaining “rights,” it brings the actual employer (the taxpayer) to the bargaining table by replacing unelected, unfireable binding arbitrators with elected officials directly accountable for budget solvency, and clarifies the collectively bargainable “terms and conditions” – the ambiguities of which have long been exploited by unions for Cadillac benefits at taxpayer expense.

But one must read the bill to know this – which its opponents apparently don’t want you to do.

At an SEIU rally outside the Ohio Capitol in Columbus, I approached a member for information. She responded that under the bill “we will soon not have any seniority benefits, insurance benefits will go out the window” (correction: 90 percent of her pension and 85 percent of her health care will still be taxpayer-funded), and “we won’t have any rights for bargaining for safety” (correction: SB 5 is the very first law to grant workers the authority to bargain on safety under Section 4117.08 – a right not clarified in the Democrat-sponsored Ohio collective bargaining law of 1983).

When I then asked how a law that specifically grants the right to bargain on safety is taking away the right to bargain on safety, an SEIU organizer interrupted the interview, insisting their members are not to answer questions.

One must wonder why the SEIU rank and file – whom their organizers recruit to “get out the message” – are not even trusted by their organizers to, well, explain the message. Like Project Mayhem, the first rule of SEIU is: You do not ask questions.

(Perhaps because the answers might incline voters to wonder what the big deal is.)

Ironically, Melissa Fazekas, spokeswoman for We Are Ohio – the leading anti-Issue 2 organization – appeared on MSNBC to tell Ed Schultz that “the more Ohioans learn about Senate Bill 5 and the fact that it’s unsafe, unfair, and hurts us all…the more Ohioans are with us.”

In Fazekas’ press statements since May (literally the website’s only informative literature), she explains in profound detail how precisely it is “unsafe, unfair, and hurts us all”:

It “is unfair, unsafe and hurts all of us” (8/12); it is an “unfair attack on employee rights and worker safety” (8/3); it is an “unfair attack on employee rights and worker safety” (7/21); it is an “unfair attack on employee rights and worker safety” (7/19); it is an “unfair attack on employee rights and worker safety” (7/14); it is an “unfair attack on employee rights and worker safety” (6/29); not to mention, it is an “unfair attack on employee rights and worker safety” (5/31). Oh, and it is “a bad bill” (7/21) – and by the way, it is “a bad bill” (7/20)!

And that’s why you should vote against it! What’s that? More questions? Must we go over this again?

We Are Ohio gleefully boasts itself to be “a citizen-driven, community-based, bipartisan coalition that has come together to repeal SB 5.”

And that’s all you need to know! No need to check our campaign finance disclosure!

And to their credit, the disclosure does, in fact, confirm that the group is “citizen-driven,” if by “citizen” they mean union special interests, and if by “community” they mean the Washington Big Labor oligarchy. Yes, their “community” base includes such “grassroots support” from the following:

AFL-CIO ($1,500,000), AFSCME ($1,000,000), AAUP ($200,000), SEIU ($200,562.01), UFCW Local 1059 ($104,165.20), Fraternal Order of Police ($87,722.34), Ohio Associate of Professional Firefighters ($87,071), Ohio Federation of Teachers ($72,554.42), AAUP Locals ($52,821.40), AFSCME Council 8 ($598,278.72), AFSCME 11 ($154,598.22), AFSCME 4 ($251,160.39), OEA ($756,859.68), Ohio Democrat Party ($72,422.50), CWA ($1,000,000); and other non-individual contributions ($155,613.98).

Only $39,333.89 was received from individual contributors (0.5 percent of their intake). But this didn’t stop Fazekas from bragging that “[n]early 80% of the contributors made contributions of $100 or less.”

Sure, and 99.4 percent of the contributions were five to seven figures, but you would have to break the Project Mayhem rule to find that out. (I asked Fazekas to explain why she had left that rather significant part out, to which she declined to comment.)

After Building a Better Ohio‘s pro-Issue 2 ad aired, I received a “Dear Friend” e-mail from Are Ohio’s Joe Rettof bemoaning Better Ohio’s ad and their “secretive special interest groups” (by which I’m sure he meant the kind that don’t bankroll 99.4 percent of his organization’s budget). Rettof bragged that We Are Ohio’s ad featured Doug Stern, “a working class firefighter,” while their “opponents are using two politicians: Gov. Kasich and Toledo Mayor Mike Bell – both [of whom] are no friends of Middle Class Ohio.”

And that’s all you need to know! No need to check Bell’s resume!

Unfortunately for Rettof, however, Bell’s resume reveals he not only previously worked in the Toledo Fire Department (and was laid off early in his career), but was Fire Chief before being appointed by Democrat Governor Ted Strickland to State Fire Marshal. You know, one of those empty suit politicians with no empathy for working firefighters.

Theirs is not simply a misinformation campaign, but an uninformation campaign. Fazeka’s MSNBC “the more Ohioans learn…the more Ohioans are with us” bite is a fascinating quote from someone who manifestly wants them to learn as little as possible, whose apparent disregard for the average Ohioan’s intelligence and intellectual curiosity is the lifeblood of her optimism.

Their message is clear: Vote “no” on the bill – but whatever you do, don’t read it. And always remember the first rule of Project Mayhem.