ACE Fact-finder’s report rejected by YSU trustees

By Denise Dick | December 17, 2014 at 12:09a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University trustees unanimously rejected a fact-finder’s report for a contract with the Association of Classified Employees that called for a freeze of both wages and step adjustments.

Although fact-finder Robert G. Stein of Portage County recommended wage and step freezes, he included what’s effectively a “me-too” clause.

The freezes are to be in effect provided “the administration as a whole does not receive a general wage increase during the life of the agreement” and no other striking bargaining unit “receives a percentage increase in wages during the life of the agreement either through negotiations or fact-finding,” the report said.

If any other striking bargaining unit receives a wage increase, “then the ACE bargaining unit shall receive the same wage increase effective on that same date,” it says.

The roughly 300-member union includes parking staff, grounds keepers, secretaries and other personnel. The contract expired in August, and negotiations began last May.

A statement from the university said rejection of the report means the two sides can resume negotiations.

“The university intends to contact ACE to continue the negotiations process,” it says.

Ron Cole, university spokesman, and Connie Frisby, ACE president, both declined to comment, citing a news blackout on negotiations.

Stein also recommended the university be allowed to implement a plan for mandatory furloughs of employees “to achieve reductions necessitated by institutional budget deficits.”

The maximum number of furlough days allowed under his recommendation was 10 unpaid days per fiscal year in 2015 and 2016. YSU would have to provide 30 days advance notice of a mandatory furlough plan.

The fact-finder also recommended changes in the sick-leave payout language for ACE members.

Under current ACE contract language, union members who retire can receive payment for 25 percent of the first 500 hours of accrued but unused sick time; 40 percent for the second 500 hours; and 50 percent of the third 500 hours.

“If the university is to remain competitive, its benefits architecture and costs must eventually come into line with its prime competitors,” Stein said. It’s also clear, he wrote, that “other YSU bargaining units are even more out of line than the ACE bargaining unit.”

The Association of Professional/Administrative Staff can “cash out a maximum of 675 hours,” the report says. “Others in line with ACE, are the FOP [Fraternal Order of Police], whose members can cash out 575 hours, the OEA[Ohio Education Association]/faculty, whose members at retirement can cash out 416 hours.”

Stein recommended that through Aug. 15, 2016, a retiring ACE member shall receive payment for 25 percent of the first 500 ours of accrued but unused sick leave; 40 percent of the second 500 hours; and 50 percent of the third 500 hours.

Effective Aug. 16, 2016, the cash payment for accrued unused sick leave will be 25 percent of accrued but unused sick leave not to exceed 416 hours.

“The structural deficit problem identified by the employer is real, and to ignore it in the face of the current deficit problems that YSU must address will further weaken its competitive position,” Stein wrote.