YSU Labor relations are poor, union official reports

Five months before contracts expire, YSU union leaders vent about relations with the administration.
By RON COLE
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Soon after being appointed president of Youngstown State University two years ago, Dr. David Sweet said improving labor relations would be a top priority in his administration.
Two years later, union leaders give Sweet an "A" for effort but say not a whole lot else has changed. "Right now, the labor climate isn't good," said John Russo, faculty union president.
Roman Swerdan, president of the union representing YSU classified employees, said employee-management relations are worse than before Sweet came to Youngstown.
"There's very little trust with the administration," he said.
Sweet disagrees.
"It's all in the eye of the beholder," he said.
Sweet's comments: Sweet said there has been significant progress, including a labor summit last spring, improved grievance procedures and a new labor-management committee that will have full access to YSU's financial books in preparation for negotiations.
"I'm laying all of the data on the table," he said.
"We have a number of approaches under way" to improve relationships with the unions, he added.
Union leaders aren't as upbeat, and that may not bode well as negotiations approach.
Contracts for the 350-member faculty union and 377-member classified union, which represents nonteaching employees ranging from maintenance workers to computer programmers, expire in August. Negotiations are expected to begin soon.
Swerdan and the leaders of the university's police and professional staff unions called a news conference Wednesday to criticize YSU's decision this week to withdraw from a program called Relationships-by-Objective.
RBO, developed by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and launched at YSU in December, aims at helping smooth labor relations.
The program fell apart Monday in a dispute over the wording of one of the unions' proposals.
Complaints: While union leaders said they remain committed to improving relations, they aired a litany of complaints at the news conference, from the number of recently-hired administrators to placing student workers and managers in union jobs.
"A lot of lack of respect," Swerdan said.
Russo called the RBO program "merely window dressing in trying to put a good public face on problems facing the employees of Youngstown State."
The faculty union chose not to participate.
"The faculty's not keen about this process, so it doesn't surprise me what happened," he said.