YSU’s talks with ACE call for a fact finder

By Harold Gwin

Neither side will be bound by the recommendation.

YOUNGSTOWN — Negotiations between Youngstown State University and its 400-member Association of Classified Employees union are headed for fact-finding.

The two sides have been unable to reach an agreement in talks that began several months ago.

The current pact doesn’t end until mid-August.

Terms of negotiations provided that, if no settlement was reached by May 15, either side could petition the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service for the appointment of a fact finder who would hear presentations on the issues and come up with a recommendation for settlement.

Both ACE and the university signed the request for fact-finding.

Neither side is bound by the fact finder’s recommendation, however. If either party rejects it, negotiators return to the bargaining table.

Details of negotiations are being kept under wraps as both sides agreed to a news blackout on this year’s talks, but things apparently aren’t going as well as did the university’s negotiations with its 380-member faculty union this spring. Money is believed to be the major stumbling block.

The old faculty contract also doesn’t expire until mid-August, but a new three-year pact was wrapped up in March, calling for, among other things, a 2.5 percent base salary increase in the first year and 3.5 percent raises in both the second and third years.

The university has estimated the cost of the faculty contract at an additional $4.5 million over those three years.

The university and ACE are now in the process of selecting a fact finder from a list of seven possible candidates supplied by the FMCS. Each side strikes a name until one person remains to serve as fact finder.

Negotiations didn’t go well three years ago, either. Talks that year ended in a strike by both ACE and the faculty union, work stoppages that were resolved by last-minute settlements that allowed fall 2005 classes to start on time.

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.

That pact created a lower pay scale for newly hired employees and an early retirement incentive program. It also marked the beginning of employee contributions to health-care costs, with employees contributing 1.5 percent of their base salary for family coverage and 0.75 percent for single coverage.

YSU faculty pay the same percentages for health care.

gwin@vindy.com