Ohio Citizen Action

Ohio Citizen Action is an advocacy group representing 32,000 members throughout Ohio. Over its history the organization has worked on issues as diverse as single-payer healthcare, expanding access to organic produce in grocery stores, securing majority rule, and speeding Ohio's embrace of a just and equitable clean energy economy. The organization was founded in Cleveland in 1975 as the Ohio Public Interest Campaign (OPIC), a coalition of union, senior citizen, church, and community organizations. Responding to a wave of factory closings in Northeast Ohio, the coalition proposed state legislation to require advance notice to employees before a closing (1977). The Ohio legislature balked, so U.S. Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH) sponsored it as a federal bill. It became federal law in 1988. In 1989, the Ohio Public Interest Campaign changed its name to Ohio Citizen Action to reflect its change from a coalition to a membership organization. Their headquarters is located fifteen minutes south of downtown Cleveland, on Brookpark Road.