YSU Strike
Aug 16, 2005 16:14:56 GMT -5
Post by wsu97 on Aug 16, 2005 16:14:56 GMT -5
By RAYMOND L. SMITH Tribune Chronicle
YOUNGSTOWN - Despite several last-ditch efforts, Youngstown State University's largest union walked off their jobs at 12:01 a.m. today.
"We presented our members the university's last and final offer to be voted up or down,'' Christine Domhoff, president and chief negotiator of Youngstown State University's Association of Classified Employees, said Monday. "No one accepted the offer, with two abstentions. The rest of the individuals rejected it flatly.''
Domhoff said some pickets were to assemble early this morning around the construction site of the new YSU Wellness Center at the corner of Fifth and Spring Street. The membership would be on the line in full force this morning, she said.
Domhoff said she expects members of the faculty and other area unions to support the picket.
Walt Ulbricht, executive director of marketing and communications at YSU, said, "The university is disappointed that ACE members have voted to strike. We believe the university's final contract offer was fair and reasonable, especially considering the financial constraints on public higher education in Ohio and the increasing tuition burden on the students and their families.''
Ulbricht said he remains hopeful ACE members will reconsider. In the meantime, YSU will remain open, and essential campus operations will be maintained.
YSU spokesman Ron Cole said professional and administrative employees on campus may be reassigned, as needed, to fill gaps in various areas during the strike.
"Our plan is to be open for the first day of fall semester, which is Aug. 29,'' Cole said.
The strike may affect the education of 13,101 students. About 24 percent, or 3,169 of those students, live in Trumbull County. Nearly half, 6,419, live in Mahoning County.
There are 391 members in YSU/ACE union, whose 200 classifications include all software specialists, computer and system analysts, library and media personnel, secretaries and administrative assistants, accountants and clerks, bookstore personnel, and groundskeepers and maintenance. The union does not include food service or janitorial personnel.
The university is also negotiating with the 380-member faculty union. If a contract agreement is not reached, the faculty union has voted to strike Aug. 23.
Domhoff said the negotiating team spent Thursday through Sunday night reviewing the university's proposal and, while attempting to remain in their financial framework, recrafted it in a way they felt would be acceptable to both sides.
"They did not find our proposal acceptable,'' she said. "We believe our proposal would have saved the university somewhere between $800,000 to $900,000 over the life of the contract.''
One of the key factors of ACE's revision of the university's offer was altering the retirement incentive from a buyout of two years for some older employees contracts to a plan in which the university would have paid eligible employees $20,000 each.
"We estimated the buying out two years of an employee contract would have cost the university $70,000 per year, per contract,'' Domhoff said. "Instead, we proposed spreading out the money among a wider group of employees and paying employees that take an early retirement incentive a one-time $20,000 pay out.''
The union estimates the early retirement incentive program, as currently proposed, would cost YSU $2.8 million to implement.
In addition, redoing the retirement incentive proposal, Domhoff said the union leadership agreed to its membership to pay a share of insurance premiums, spousal coordination of health insurance, and increasing the amount members pay for prescription drugs.
"I do not understand why they wouldn't approve of a contract that would save them money,'' she said. "We offered to contribute more for prescription drugs than the university suggested in their proposal.''
The union had accepted the university's salary proposal of 2 percent the first year, 4 percent in the second and 3 percent in the final year.
However, the union rejected the university proposal that had its members paying 1.5 percent of the union member's base salary to be provided a family health insurance plan or 0.75 percent for a individual health plan. Instead, according to the university, the union proposed having members paying a flat fee of $260 for family and $130 for single, but only in the third year of the contract.
In addition, the union wanted the university to:
Provide signing bonuses of $500, $600 and $700 per member, respectively for the three years of the contract.
Provide full dental, vision and prescription drug coverage for part-time employees.
YSU President David Sweet said two sides have to recognize their duties to the students.
"The university and ACE members have been working together successfully for years,'' Sweet said. "They are part of the YSU family and have made important contributions that have enabled YSU to be recognized as state leaders in higher education.
"We ask they respect our duty to perform our responsibilities to serve our students under Ohio law.''
Domhoff said she believes the contract negotiations were doomed from the start.
"I believe they tried to break the union,'' she said. "They initially did that by having me fired. They continued by not really negotiating with us until it went to the fact-finder.''
The YSU/ACE union's headquarters is located at the First Christ Church.
www.tribunechronicle.com/news/story/0816202005_new01strike16.asp
YOUNGSTOWN - Despite several last-ditch efforts, Youngstown State University's largest union walked off their jobs at 12:01 a.m. today.
"We presented our members the university's last and final offer to be voted up or down,'' Christine Domhoff, president and chief negotiator of Youngstown State University's Association of Classified Employees, said Monday. "No one accepted the offer, with two abstentions. The rest of the individuals rejected it flatly.''
Domhoff said some pickets were to assemble early this morning around the construction site of the new YSU Wellness Center at the corner of Fifth and Spring Street. The membership would be on the line in full force this morning, she said.
Domhoff said she expects members of the faculty and other area unions to support the picket.
Walt Ulbricht, executive director of marketing and communications at YSU, said, "The university is disappointed that ACE members have voted to strike. We believe the university's final contract offer was fair and reasonable, especially considering the financial constraints on public higher education in Ohio and the increasing tuition burden on the students and their families.''
Ulbricht said he remains hopeful ACE members will reconsider. In the meantime, YSU will remain open, and essential campus operations will be maintained.
YSU spokesman Ron Cole said professional and administrative employees on campus may be reassigned, as needed, to fill gaps in various areas during the strike.
"Our plan is to be open for the first day of fall semester, which is Aug. 29,'' Cole said.
The strike may affect the education of 13,101 students. About 24 percent, or 3,169 of those students, live in Trumbull County. Nearly half, 6,419, live in Mahoning County.
There are 391 members in YSU/ACE union, whose 200 classifications include all software specialists, computer and system analysts, library and media personnel, secretaries and administrative assistants, accountants and clerks, bookstore personnel, and groundskeepers and maintenance. The union does not include food service or janitorial personnel.
The university is also negotiating with the 380-member faculty union. If a contract agreement is not reached, the faculty union has voted to strike Aug. 23.
Domhoff said the negotiating team spent Thursday through Sunday night reviewing the university's proposal and, while attempting to remain in their financial framework, recrafted it in a way they felt would be acceptable to both sides.
"They did not find our proposal acceptable,'' she said. "We believe our proposal would have saved the university somewhere between $800,000 to $900,000 over the life of the contract.''
One of the key factors of ACE's revision of the university's offer was altering the retirement incentive from a buyout of two years for some older employees contracts to a plan in which the university would have paid eligible employees $20,000 each.
"We estimated the buying out two years of an employee contract would have cost the university $70,000 per year, per contract,'' Domhoff said. "Instead, we proposed spreading out the money among a wider group of employees and paying employees that take an early retirement incentive a one-time $20,000 pay out.''
The union estimates the early retirement incentive program, as currently proposed, would cost YSU $2.8 million to implement.
In addition, redoing the retirement incentive proposal, Domhoff said the union leadership agreed to its membership to pay a share of insurance premiums, spousal coordination of health insurance, and increasing the amount members pay for prescription drugs.
"I do not understand why they wouldn't approve of a contract that would save them money,'' she said. "We offered to contribute more for prescription drugs than the university suggested in their proposal.''
The union had accepted the university's salary proposal of 2 percent the first year, 4 percent in the second and 3 percent in the final year.
However, the union rejected the university proposal that had its members paying 1.5 percent of the union member's base salary to be provided a family health insurance plan or 0.75 percent for a individual health plan. Instead, according to the university, the union proposed having members paying a flat fee of $260 for family and $130 for single, but only in the third year of the contract.
In addition, the union wanted the university to:
Provide signing bonuses of $500, $600 and $700 per member, respectively for the three years of the contract.
Provide full dental, vision and prescription drug coverage for part-time employees.
YSU President David Sweet said two sides have to recognize their duties to the students.
"The university and ACE members have been working together successfully for years,'' Sweet said. "They are part of the YSU family and have made important contributions that have enabled YSU to be recognized as state leaders in higher education.
"We ask they respect our duty to perform our responsibilities to serve our students under Ohio law.''
Domhoff said she believes the contract negotiations were doomed from the start.
"I believe they tried to break the union,'' she said. "They initially did that by having me fired. They continued by not really negotiating with us until it went to the fact-finder.''
The YSU/ACE union's headquarters is located at the First Christ Church.
www.tribunechronicle.com/news/story/0816202005_new01strike16.asp
