Unfair labor practice charge filed against union representing career center employees
An unfair labor practice charge was filed with Ohio’s State Employment Relations Board against the union representing the Coshocton County Career Center’s employees today. That union, the Coshocton County Career Center Employees Education Association, is alleged to have engaged in bad faith bargaining during its contract negotiations with the career center’s board of education. The charge stems from the union bargaining team’s refusal to support the ratification of a tentative agreement that it had already signed.
“The union’s bargaining representatives made the board of education’s bargaining team an offer on employee salaries and health insurance premiums, and the parties tentatively agreed to that offer,” said Career Center Superintendent Matt Colvin. “Now, the board has come to learn that during a ratification vote, the union bargaining team did not support the union’s tentative agreement that they signed.”
In the State of Ohio, it is illegal for a union to bargain a contract in bad faith by violating the established ground rules for negotiating. The ground rules between the Career Center Board of Education and the union include the duty to sign a tentative agreement only if it is acceptable to both parties.
“For the union’s bargaining team to not support a proposal that it offered the board, and that both parties already signed, is a clear indication of bad faith,” Colvin said. “How is the board supposed to bargain with union representatives who won’t support their own proposals?”
Category: Education
