Faculty, YSU to meet on contract

Staff report

youngstown

Representatives for Youngstown State University’s administration and faculty are to meet today over stalled contract talks, and a union spokeswoman says she hopes the administration will agree to negotiate.

The YSU chapter of the Ohio Education Association said it would strike Aug. 26 after its membership rejected the administration’s “last and best offer” for a three-year contract. But the union changed course hours later and said it wanted to keep negotiating.

Today’s meeting, set last week, was to begin at 9:30 a.m. in Cushwa Hall.

Classes started Monday as scheduled, and the university began to distribute students’ financial aid that had been delayed because of the strike threat.

The union filed an unfair labor practices charge against the administration Tuesday, claiming “a pattern of bad faith and regressive bargaining.” The administration said it was disappointed by that filing and said the charge is “without merit.”

Now, said union spokeswoman Sherry Linkon, there is no way to know in advance of today’s meeting what will happen.

“We hope they’re going to negotiate with us,” she said Thursday.

“They said they’d listen, but they don’t have any more money to spend. We hope to persuade them to be a little more flexible.”

University spokesman Ron Cole said the administration would have no statement before the meeting.

The university’s last offer included no raises in the first and second years and a 2 percent increase in the third year. It also reduced faculty pay for summer school and required increased contributions for health-care benefits.