COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Labor leaders on Thursday dropped their campaign for a ballot issue that would give most full-time workers seven paid sick days a year.

Members of Ohioans for Healthy Families, an advocacy group that supported the sick-day mandate, said they have agreed with a request by Gov. Ted Strickland to keep the issue off the November ballot and avoid a negative and divisive campaign fight.

Strickland opposed the issue, saying it would hurt the state’s economy.

“It became clear that a shrill and vitriolic ballot campaign marred by misinformation and disinformation would be impossible to avoid,” said Becky Williams, president of the Service Employees International Union District 1199, which spoke for the advocacy group at a news conference Thursday.

Williams said supporters will continue their fight for a federal law that would require businesses to offer paid sick days to their employees. Strickland and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, both Democrats, have agreed to help campaign for that, she said.

“We will not rest until paid sick days finally and at long last becomes a reality — not just for all Ohioans, but for all Americans”, she said.

The Ohio proposal would have required companies with at least 25 employees to give workers seven sick days a year, with unused sick time carrying over to the next year.

Supporters, including several big labor unions, have said 2 million Ohioans don’t have any paid sick leave for themselves or their families. Williams said the group was confident that voters would have approved the issue in November.

Ohio business groups opposed the plan. The National Federation of Independent Business in Ohio released a study in August that said a sick-day mandate would cost the state 75,000 jobs in the next five years.

Ohioans for Healthy Families had submitted petitions for the issue to appear on the November ballot. The group said it will ask the Secretary of State’s office to stop the process of verifying signatures.

 

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