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Ohio's Public Employee Bargaining Law: Can It Withstand Constitutional Challenge?, Rebecca White, Robert E. Kaplan, Michael W. Hawkins

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Public employees in Ohio are now statutorily entitled to bargain collectively with their government employers. This controversial right was obtained on July 6, 1983, when Ohio Governor Richard Celeste fulfilled a major campaign promise by signing into law Senate Bill 133. This bill, which took effect April 1, 1984, has been labeled "one of the most pro-labor public employee bargaining statutes in the nation.

As with any legislation that provides sweeping social and economic changes, challenges to the bill's legitimacy can be expected. Experience in other states teaches that constitutional attacks on the statute will be mounted swiftly, attacks that …