SOUTHINGTON School union plans appeal

The union will go to the Ohio Supreme Court if necessary, a leader said.
SOUTHINGTON -- The president of the union representing striking school district classified workers here says it will appeal a State Employment Relations Board ruling dismissing its unfair labor practice charge.
"We're not giving up until the Ohio Supreme Court tells us it's over," said Wendy Tietz, president of Ohio Association of Public School Employees Local 673.
The union filed the complaint in July. It says the school board implemented a contract without providing the union with a last best offer.
"The investigation reveals that [the school board] had the right to implement its last, best offer," SERB wrote in its ruling issued Thursday.
Other charges settled
In February, the parties settled two other unfair labor practice charges by agreeing to bargain in at least two more sessions with the assistance of the federal mediator.
Those two meetings occurred and several proposals were exchanged, SERB said.
The school board's offer at the table "was influenced by such things as state funding reductions and reduced revenue, and increased costs associated with maintaining the health benefit provisions of the expired collective bargaining agreement," SERB wrote.
Tietz said the union would appeal SERB's ruling in the 11th District Court of Appeals.
School district officials couldn't be reached.
Tietz said district residents presented the school board Thursday night with petitions bearing 1,200 signatures and asking the board to resume negotiations.
Urging resolution
Area legislators and other public officials also have urged the panel to resolve the strike.
"The federal mediator has asked them to get back to the table three or four times," Tietz said. "All the representatives and 1,200 of our residents have asked them to get back to the table. They're ignoring all of that."
An unfair labor practice complaint in which the union charges that the school district failed to notify it of how to continue members' health insurance, is pending before SERB. It was filed last week.