Contract includes raises for YSU workers

By Harold Gwin

“This contract reflects a new era in labor relations at YSU. It’s a new day. We’re moving forward.”

Ivan Maldonado

ACE president

One YSU trustee, Harry Meshel, voted against the contract because it is ‘overly generous.’

YOUNGSTOWN — A two-tier wage scale is gone, and 380 nonfaculty employees at Youngstown State University will get annual pay increases of 2.5, 2.5 and 2.6 percent under terms of a new three-year contract ratified Tuesday.

Members of the Association of Classified Employees, representing secretaries, administrative assistants, building maintenance people, librarians and others, approved the terms of the new pact Monday.

YSU’s Board of Trustees ratified it in a 7-1 vote Tuesday, with Harry Meshel casting the dissenting vote.

After a two-hour review of the contract terms in an executive session, Meshel said he believes the university is being “overly generous in this contract.”

Just having the money available isn’t an adequate reason to spend it, he said, adding that the new ACE contract apparently makes up for past contract issues.

“There has to be a limit imposed somewhere, and I think we’ve gone beyond it,” Meshel said.

Voting for the contract were Scott Schulick, John Pogue, H.S. Wang, Larry DeJane, Millicent Counts, Sudershan Garg and Dianne Bitonte Miladore.

With Tuesday’s vote, the university’s two largest unions, representing around 800 classified staff and the faculty, have new contracts in place for the start of the fall semester Aug. 25. The faculty union got a new three-year contract in April.

That’s a far cry from negotiations three years ago that led to late-summer strikes by both the ACE and faculty unions. Last-minute settlements then resulted in classes starting on time.

“The approval of this contract is yet another reason to celebrate as YSU marks its centennial year,” said Dr. David C. Sweet, YSU president, offering his thanks to the negotiating teams that worked out the new agreements, calling the result “a step forward in improving and continuing to improve labor-management relations.”

“This contract reflects a new era in labor relations at YSU,” agreed Ivan Maldonado, ACE president. “It’s a new day. We’re moving forward,” he said.

The union had accepted a two-tier wage package in its previous contract, but that is gone now, Maldonado said.

About 25 percent of the current union membership was hired under that two-tier system.

None of those people had yet reached the previous starting salary for their jobs, but all will advance to that level in the new pact which takes effect Aug. 15, Maldonado said.

Craig Bickley, YSU chief human resources officer and chief negotiator for the university, said the agreement restructures and simplifies the salary structure for classified employees.

There is also a continuation of an early-retirement incentive open to all university employees that will have YSU buying up to two years of service time for employees eligible to retire, giving them a bigger pension.

The same incentive was negotiated three years ago and was opened to all eligible employees as well.

The university estimates that 100 people could take advantage of the new version.

The ACE contract also settles a legal dispute regarding personal days. The union had argued it was entitled to six, while the university said employees were entitled to two.

They will get four days under the new contract.