YSU faculty union president slams university, trustees over contract stall

YOUNGSTOWN

Will a new Youngstown State University faculty contract mean trick or treat for the university? Maybe it will just be a turkey.

About a month ago, it looked as if a new pact would be reached within weeks. University and faculty union representatives issued a news release announcing that a tentative agreement had been reached on a new three-year contract.

But an update sent this week to faculty members by the union’s chief negotiator and obtained by The Vindicator paints a bleaker picture.

“We are now going into a second month without a contract ...,” the memo from Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez says. “It is a sign of a deeply troubled perhaps dysfunctional institution in which communication and procedures are fractured, and leadership — the [board of trustees] — lacks vision and will.”

Ron Cole, a university spokesman, said in a text message that “meetings have been scheduled to continue to negotiate the remaining health care issues in the contract. We hope that those discussions will result in an expedited resolution.”

Palmer-Fernandez writes that the reason a master tentative agreement hasn’t been reached is the health-care advisory committee, an entity convened by the university, hasn’t agreed on recommendations.

Read more about the situation in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.