YSU faculty union approves a tentative agreement

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University’s faculty union has approved an agreement for its three-year contract with the YSU administration for 2017-2020.

There were 174 votes in favor of the agreement, nine votes against and one abstention, said A.J. Sumell, union president and economics professor.

“It is fair to say both sides – the administration and faculty – are happy to put negotiations behind us so we can focus on what matters, which is student success, teaching our classes, doing our research and trying to improve quality of life in this community,” he said. “This is something everyone part of YSU community can get behind. Now we can get behind improving the community more because we are not distracted by negotiations.”

This decision comes after the union also voted to approve an amended fact finder’s report on Sept. 20.

Also on Sept. 20, YSU’s Board of Trustees rejected the fact finder’s report for the faculty union’s contract – citing a technicality. Provost Martin Abraham said at the time that the technicality is that the board is not allowed to approve an amended fact finder’s report.

He added that the tentative agreement, which the faculty voted on Monday, “looks essentially like” the amended report, just written in contract language.

The amended report is the result of changes by both faculty and administration.

The tentative agreement includes many of the same items listed in the amended fact finder’s report such as: base salary increases; increases for minimum salaries; new ranks; summer compensation changes; a flattened employee insurance contribution; and two side letter agreements regarding academic rank bonuses and a safeguarded faculty workload agreement.

The base salary increases are 2 percent this year and 2.5 percent in each of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years.

For the complete story, read Tuesday's Vindicator and Vindy.com