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YSU: No merit to faculty’s unfair labor complaint
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
The faculty union is accusing Youngstown State University of bad-faith and regressive bargaining and of violating negotiation ground rules.
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The charge was filed Tuesday with the State Employment Relations Board by the YSU Chapter of the Ohio Education Association.
Stan Guzell, the union’s chief negotiator, said in a statement that the union would not have been forced to take legal action, nor would students’ financial aid have been delayed, if university trustees had been as willing to compromise as the faculty.
“They have the power to solve all of this by coming to Friday’s negotiating meeting prepared to engage in open, honest, productive conversations,” he said. “I hope they will choose to take the high road.”
The two sides are scheduled to meet Friday morning after the faculty union last week rejected what the university called its last, best offer.
“We are disappointed that the union has filed this ULP,” YSU said in a statement. “It is totally without merit. Since this is now part of litigation, we will reserve further comment about the specifics of the charges.”
The union’s complaint says that despite the union’s attempts “to engage in a reasonable and straight-forward dialogue” with YSU to reach a new collective-bargaining agreement, the university “has engaged in a pattern of bad faith and regressive bargaining.”
During hearings before fact-finder Howard D. Silver of Columbus, the university submitted proposals to Silver on items the parties had previously reached tentative agreement, it says. The hearings before the fact-finder were to be on unresolved issues.
The complaint also charges that YSU publicly released the fact-finder’s report contrary to law that specifies public release isn’t to occur until after the parties vote to accept or reject it. The release also was contrary to “parties’ negotiation ground rules (which imposed a news blackout until a tentative agreement on all outstanding issues was reached or until both parties voted on the recommended final settlement),” it says.
Despite the university’s actions, the union “has rescinded a strike notice and remains ready and willing to meet with” the administration “to resume negotiations and to reach a resolution on outstanding issues that is fair to all parties and that reflects shared sacrifice,” the complaint says.
Julia Gergits, YSU-OEA president, said in the statement that the administration has blamed the faculty for any problems related to negotiations.
“I’ve said it before: we voted to accept the fact finder’s report, despite the significant concessions involved,” she said. “And even though we turned down their latest offer, we chose not to strike — a gesture that probably saved the university a lot of money and good will. Yet they continue to describe us as the source of all the problems. We’re frustrated by their lack of action and by their attitude toward us.”
Last week, the university presented what it called its last, best offer to the union. That offer included no raises in the first two years of the proposed contract with a 2 percent in the third and final year.
It also reduces faculty pay for summer school and requires increased health-care contributions from members.
Faculty salary minimums are $75,674 for professors, $64,215 for associate professors, $51,238 for assistant professors and $38,689 for instructors. The university has pointed out that the average faculty salary is $72,213.
After rejecting the last, best offer, the union initially announced members would strike, beginning Aug. 26. A few hours later, though, they changed course and said they wanted to resume negotiations.
The university then said that it would meet with the union but that it wasn’t willing to spend more than what was outlined in the last offer.
After the strike was called off, fall semester classes started Monday and the university began the process to distribute financial aid and scholarship payments to students. Those payments had been delayed on advice from the U.S. Department of Education while the date of the start of classes was in question, university officials have said.