Saturday, January 20, 2007
GOP sheriff asks Democrats to help resolve AK Steel lockout
A side of labour actions that you don't normally see. .... the sheriff gets involved.
Akron Beacon Journal - Akron
Sheriff Rick Jones has written letters to Gov. Ted Strickland and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, both Democrats who won GOP-held seats on Nov. 7, and asked them to intervene.
'It is of the utmost importance that you intervene in the negotiations to bring this 11-month-old lockout to a productive conclusion. Our community needs your help and support,' Jones wrote. 'I know it's very strange that a local Republican sheriff would ask two of the most powerful Democrats in the state of Ohio to do something, but I am.'
"You drive by, you see these people still sitting outside (AK's plant). It's pitiful, and it's affecting the whole area," Jones said. "People have been asking for extensions on their child support payments. Businesses are hurting.
"And our office, we're the ones who have to set these people's furniture out on the street when we have to sell their houses out from underneath them when they can't afford the payments anymore."
Akron Beacon Journal - Akron
Sheriff Rick Jones has written letters to Gov. Ted Strickland and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, both Democrats who won GOP-held seats on Nov. 7, and asked them to intervene.
'It is of the utmost importance that you intervene in the negotiations to bring this 11-month-old lockout to a productive conclusion. Our community needs your help and support,' Jones wrote. 'I know it's very strange that a local Republican sheriff would ask two of the most powerful Democrats in the state of Ohio to do something, but I am.'
"You drive by, you see these people still sitting outside (AK's plant). It's pitiful, and it's affecting the whole area," Jones said. "People have been asking for extensions on their child support payments. Businesses are hurting.
"And our office, we're the ones who have to set these people's furniture out on the street when we have to sell their houses out from underneath them when they can't afford the payments anymore."
