YSU, union reach tentative pact

By Harold Gwin

The two sides had been headed for fact finding in an effort to resolve differences.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngs-town State University and the union representing its nonfaculty employees have reached tentative agreements on a new three-year contact.

The settlement comes about a month before the expiration of the old three-year pact with the Association of Classified Employees, which represents about 400 administrative assistants, secretaries, computer center employees, maintenance workers and others.

Terms of the proposed contract will be released after the tentative agreement has been presented to the ACE membership and the university’s trustee board for review and ratification votes, according to a joint statement from Craig Bickley, chief of human resources and chief negotiator for the university, and Ivan Maldonado, union president and chief negotiator.

The ACE membership could vote on the package as soon as July 28. The trustees would likely consider the contract after it is approved by the union.

The two sides began collective bargaining in October 2007 with both sides maintaining a determination to improve the climate of trust and collaboration between the university and the union, the joint statement said.

Talks did hit a snag about two months ago, and both sides filed a request for fact finding with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

A fact finder listens to both sides of a contact dispute and comes up with a recommendation for settlement. That recommendation isn’t binding, however.

The two sides were in the process of selecting a fact finder from a list of possible candidates prepared by the federal agency but had continued talking and were able to work out their differences. A federal mediator did sit in on recent talks that led to a settlement Wednesday.

Contract talks didn’t go quite as well three years ago when ACE negotiations ended in a strike that was resolved by a last-minute settlement that allowed fall 2005 classes to open on schedule.

ACE members received pay raises of 3 percent in both the first and second years of that contract and 3.25 percent in the third.

The university wrapped up negotiations on a new three-year faculty contract in March. It also will take effect in August.

Like the ACE union, the faculty union went on strike as talks broke down in 2005. The faculty also accepted a last-minute settlement to allow classes to open on time that year.

Among other things, the new faculty contract provides a 2.5 percent base salary increase in the first year and 3.5 percent raises in both the second and third years, according to the university, which has estimated the cost of the contract at an additional $4.5 million over three years.

gwin@vindy.com