Fulfill all ideas of panel, unions tell administration

The union leaders said two administrators have to go before they'll step aside.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Members of the faculty and classified employee union negotiating teams at Youngstown State University said they will resign from those teams in accordance with a labor-management panel's recommendations.
But they'll do it only if YSU administrators John Habat and Hugh Chatman no longer work at the university and only after the president of the classified employee union has been rehired by YSU.
The Labor-Management Review Panel appointed by President David C. Sweet after strikes by both unions last August issued a list of 24 recommendations in January the panel said needed to be implemented in full if the university hopes to improve labor relations.
Calls for resignations
Among those recommendations are suggestions that all members of current administrative and faculty and classified negotiating teams resign, that Habat and Chatman no longer serve the university in any capacity, and that Christine Domhoff, president of the 400-member classified employee union, be rehired.
Habat, vice president for administration and finance, and Chatman, executive director for human resources and labor relations, were part of the administrative bargaining team.
The panel's report put most of the blame for poor labor relations on them.
The list of recommendations would require action by the administration, the unions and the YSU trustee board to be fully implemented, and Sweet said he intends to submit an action plan of implementation to the trustees Thursday.
He also has said that he never made any offer to accept and fully implement the panel's findings.
He has implemented some, such as having members of the administrative bargaining teams resign and launching a series of meetings with union heads on campus.
Unions disagree
The faculty and classified unions, in a Tuesday press conference, however, said very little has been done with the panel's findings.
Members of the unions met Friday with the panel to get clarification on some of its findings. It took six weeks to get the meeting arranged, Domhoff said.
The appointment of an ongoing labor-management council, one of the recommendations, is at least a month overdue, Dr. Stanley Guzell, chief faculty negotiator, said in a prepared statement representing the positions of both unions.
"The time has come to do what we can to motivate President Sweet to exercise his leadership immediately and decisively," Guzell said.
The unions are committed to the implementation of the entire panel report, he said, noting the union negotiating teams urge Sweet to establish the labor-management council immediately.
The union negotiating team members will resign "effective on the same date that John Habat and Hugh Chatman are no longer employed at YSU in any capacity, and that Christine Domhoff has been rehired by YSU," Guzell said.
Domhoff's job -- she worked at the university's Metro College in Boardman -- was eliminated last year shortly before the start of contract talks, and she continues to try to regain her position through arbitration.
Sweet's statement
Sweet couldn't be reached for a comment on the unions' statement but said earlier in the day that his focus would be on his report to the trustees, although he would welcome any collaborative efforts toward improving labor relations.
Domhoff said the stipulation on the resignation of the union negotiating team members isn't a condition being put on Sweet, although he may see it that way.
If Sweet moves Habat and Chatman to other university positions, they'll just continue to make decisions from a different office, she said.
Guzell said he's been at YSU since 1977 and has never seen morale as low as it is now, adding that he has high hopes for the labor-management council.