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Talks stalled at YSU
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Talks between the administration at Youngstown State University and the union representing faculty appear to have stalled.
In a memo sent by email Friday, Kevin Reynolds, YSU’s chief human resources officer and chief negotiator, said the union representing faculty has refused to meet with a federal mediator Tuesday or Thursday and instead said it can meet Sept. 2.
The contract expires Aug. 17. Classes begin Aug. 20.
Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, chief negotiator for the YSU Ohio Education Association, said the union cannot meet next week because faculty members need the time to get ready for the start of classes. He also disputed the federal mediator has only one day available to meet next week, Thursday.
The memo also says negotiators reached tentative agreements on five of 10 issues last Tuesday after 12 hours of talks and that Palmer-Fernandez walked away without signing the agreements.
Palmer-Fernandez said he only walked away after telling university negotiators that he wanted to continue to negotiate and complete the deal, but university negotiators refused his request.
Palmer-Fernandez said he did not walk away until he asked three times to complete the negotiations and was rebuffed each time.
“I said, let’s either sit down and close the deal or go home,” Palmer-Fernandez said.
It was the day after those negotiations that Palmer-Fernandez asked incoming university President Jim Tressel to intervene in the talks, but Tressel declined, saying state law prohibits a university president from getting involved in contract talks.
Palmer-Fernandez said that past YSU presidents Leslie Cochran and Dr. David Sweet got involved in contract talks. Further, he said, no one in YSU’s administration can cite him the state law that says a university president cannot become involved in contract talks.
YSU spokesman Ron Cole said the university’s attorneys and legal precedent prohibit the president from circumventing the negotiating process by going around the representatives appointed by the university to negotiate.
the contract.