Union rescinds strike notification after session

NEWTON FALLS -- It will be at least 10 days before the school district's nonteaching staff can strike.
The 52-member Newton Falls Association of Classified Employees union rescinded its strike notification after a four-hour bargaining session Sunday with the board of education.
NFACE represents custodians, bus drivers, mechanics, secretaries, educational aides and cafeteria and maintenance workers. The association's parent union is the Ohio Education Association.
Terri Pigg, a bus driver and NFACE spokeswoman, and Superintendent Linda Clapp said that before the union can strike, it has to serve the board with a 10-day strike notice.
Pigg said the strike notice was withdrawn because the union cares about the pupils and community.
Health benefits are said to be the central stumbling block in the talks.
Negotiations will resume, they said, but a date hasn't been set.
Pigg said the board wants an unanimous vote to approve a contract, but one or two board members are holding out.
After several negotiating sessions in August, an impasse was declared in September, and a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service was brought in to supervise the talks.