By Andrew J. Tobias
February 20, 2020
The Ohio AFL-CIO is backing a proposed $13 minimum wage ballot issue, giving the initiative additional organizing strength as its backers work to gather signatures to try to make the November ballot.
While it hasn’t publicly announced its support, the AFL-CIO has asked its regional labor councils to help circulate petitions among its members. Ohioans for Raising the Wage need to collect roughly 443,000 valid voter signatures from 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties by Aug. 5 to make the ballot.
The AFL-CIO is Ohio’s largest organized labor group with roughly 500,000 members. It was a major backer of the last constitutional amendment to hike Ohio’s minimum wage in 2006.