Union votes ‘no confidence’ in YSU leaders

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University’s classified employees union has voted in favor of a resolution of no confidence in the administration, trustees and president of the university.

The 282-member Association of Classified Employees voted overwhelmingly to pass the resolution at a special chapter meeting Thursday, the union announced afterward.

The resolution comes after the YSU board of trustees voted in May to impose a contract on the union that it had overwhelmingly rejected a week earlier.

A big issue in that contract, union President Connie Frisby told The Vindicator at the time, was job security.

The university’s subcontracting for some work is a concern of union members, too, Frisby said.

As employees have retired and not been replaced or been reclassified to other positions, ACE membership has dwindled.

Among other changes with which the union took issue is the reduction from 63 days to 14 days for the notification of layoffs or job abolishment, Frisby said.

That doesn’t allow sufficient time for members to determine whether they’re eligible to retire rather than be laid off, she said.

Employees with more than 25 years’ service will lose one of their six weeks’ vacation, dropping to five per year.

The union had wanted employees who already get the higher vacation allotment to be grandfathered in.

The imposed contract also reduces the amount of personal time ACE members earn and requires seven days’ notice for personal time off. Frisby said people use personal time for emergencies such as car or furnace repairs.

Frisby said Thursday she realizes the university was facing serious financial troubles, “but we are still pressing for improved job security for the unit’s 280 members, which had 420 three years ago.”

“Essentially, we have been taking home less and less money every year for the last four years,” she continued. “And we understood that was going to continue through this time of need, so we felt the least they could do is offer us some security,” she said.

YSU spokesman Ron Cole could not be reached to comment.