COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Leaders of Ohio's police and firefighters — facing a Republican effort to weaken their collective bargaining rights — called on lawmakers this morning to slow down and gather more information before rushing to replace the state's collective bargaining law.

Safety forces would no longer have the right to binding arbitration under the plan, known as Senate Bill 5. Additionally, collective bargaining rights to negotiate wages and other working conditions would be wiped out for all state employees and drastically cut back for workers in local governments.

"There is no compelling evidence or reason to change the way binding arbitration as it is today," Jay McDonald, president of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, said at a news conference this morning near the Statehouse. "The speed at which this bill is moving is, quite frankly, unheard of."

Thousands of Ohio's public workers in various lines of work are expected to join police and firefighters today to protest Senate Bill 5, which was introduced earlier this month. The Senate Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee is meeting at 4 p.m. today to debate the plan. It will be the fourth public hearing on the bill, which was introduced by Sen. Shannon Jones, a Republican from Springboro.

Republicans have an 8-4 majority on the committee and a 23-10 majority in the Senate overall.

Jason Mauk, a spokesman for the Senate Republican caucus, said the committee is not expected to vote on the bill today.

Republicans who support reform of the nearly 30-year-old collective bargaining law, including Gov. John Kasich, say the law needs to change because it favors workers, forcing costly labor agreements on public employers who are coping with tight budgets.

Mark Sanders, president of the Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters, Steve Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, and several others representing safety forces joined McDonald at this morning's news conference.

Sanders and McDonald said they had no contact with Jones before she introduced her plan earlier this month. Since then, they've been talking to various lawmakers and the governor's office, they said.

"We're just trying to get to the table to have some meaningful good faith discussions," Sanders said.