COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) _ Hundreds of union workers and their supporters demonstrated and marched in downtown Columbus to protest the politics of billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch and their flagship conservative organization, Americans for Prosperity.
The crowd gathered Friday blocks from where the tea party group's annual summit was featuring five presidential candidates from the GOP's vast 2016 field. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who supported Medicaid expansion under the federal health care law, wasn't invited.
Protesters chanted “Right-to-Work is wrong!'' and bore signs reading “Stop the War on Workers'' and “It's About Freedom.'' A puppet lampooning Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who fought unions in his state, bounced amid the marching crowd.
Tyson Geiser, a steelworker in Defiance, said trade, wage and economic policies supported by the Kochs are undermining American workers.
