Labor relations panel at YSU should expand assignment

Youngstown State University will be missing a golden opportunity to find out what the people of the Mahoning Valley think about the recent strikes by faculty and classified employees if a special labor-management panel appointed by President David Sweet only reaches out to the campus community. Labor strife in the public sector invariably hurts the customer, the taxpayer -- or in the case of a university, the student.
That is why we urge the seven-member panel to expand the assignment it has been given by Sweet, namely, to seek answers to four questions posed by him:
UWhat caused the process in the recent set of negotiations to break down and result in two strikes?
UIn what ways were the strikes the culmination of a trend or the result of circumstances peculiar to this round?
UWhat can be done between now and the next round of negotiations to create an environment less likely to lead to another set of strikes?
UIn what ways can the negotiations process be changed to minimize the possibility of another set of strikes?
In a memo to the university community, the president said the panel will interview participants in the recent negotiations and the leadership of the classified employees and faculty bargaining units and the university. It will also schedule open forums, additional interviews and will solicit written testimony "so that everyone who wants to participate will have had the opportunity to do so."
The "everyone" should include business, labor and community leaders in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties and Lawrence and Mercer counties in Western Pennsylvania, and should also include parents who are being called upon year after year to pay more for their children to attend the university.
As we have argued in this space on numerous occasions, increasing the tuition every time YSU gets into a financial bind is not the way to conduct business. We are well aware that state funding for higher education has been cut and that the future looks bleak, but YSU must find other ways of making ends meet than going back to the students and their parents.
Flawed thinking
The recent negotiations clearly point to a flaw in the thinking of the administration and the board of trustees with regard to the budget. While agreeing to pay raises for faculty and classified employees, and an early retirement program for classified employees, the decision-makers admitted that YSU did not have the money to cover the additional costs. Bottom line: another increase in tuition appears inevitable.
So if the students and parents are being asked to foot the bill for the new contracts, shouldn't their opinions count? We believe they should and call on the seven-member labor-management panel to provide them with an opportunity to be heard.