After Youngstown State University's 329-member faculty union voted in favor to authorize the union leadership to strike back in mid-July, a fact-finder report was announced to be issued by an impartial mediator. 

The report, released Sept. 25, to the union and university was reviewed by members of the YSU-OEA executive and negotiation committees, which discussed the recommendations shared by Judge Betty Widgeon in her post-mediation fact-finding report and to discuss the next steps for YSU-OEA.

YSU-OEA leadership believes the recommendations, which support retaining current contract language, validate their requests to postpone negotiations to the next year because of the pandemic.

Widgeon was jointly chosen by YSU-OEA and YSU administration and approved by the State Employment Relations Board to preside over mediations between the two parties. She said hoped her report "will allow the parties to go forward in pursuing the central objective of their work: providing the best university education possible for the students entrusted to their care and instruction.

YSU-OEA committee members statement on the report said Widgeon's recommendations would 'allow both the union and the administration the opportunity to work on improving their relationship over the next three years, but also makes sure no major changes are made on either side that could affect the entire university community during an already incredibly uncertain time caused by the pandemic.'

"We are committed to defending the rights of faculty to have a fair contract, which means we can dedicate ourselves to creating an environment that puts student success first-particularly during an incredibly uncertain pandemic period," Vopat said.

While the university didn't offer a formal response to the fact finders report, but offered instead an email that went out from the university's chief negotiator Kevin Kraalj to the faculty union's chief negotiator.

In the interest of keeping the lines of communication open and in the spirit of continued transparency, I am reaching out to confirm our receipt of the Fact-Finder's report and to provide some initial thoughts.

Overall, we are very disappointed on several levels.

First, while you and your team rightly recognized in response to the Administration's Supposal the financial sacrifices made by other employees on campus and the faculty's willingness to share in the sacrifice, the Fact-Finder failed to acknowledge this in the report. In fact, the report recommends a 6 percent pay increase over three years, while nearly all non-faculty employees on campus have accepted salary reductions of up to 15 percent, furloughs and layoffs. If the terms of this report are put into place, it will create inequities across employee groups.

Second, we are also very disappointed in the overall quality of the report, especially the lack of any significant analysis on any level. Our hope was that the Fact-Finder would provide all of us better insight into ways to make the university more effective. Instead, we received a report that took a simplistic approach to very complex issues, providing little to no explanation for the recommendations. The lack of any analysis is particularly disappointing considering the time both parties engaged in explaining the issues as well as the cost of the report charged by the Fact-Finder.

And third, the report shows a complete lack of appreciation and understanding of the extremely difficult financial circumstances facing the university and higher education at this time. If the terms of this report are put into place, difficult budget decisions will be necessary across the institution.

Over the next several days, the university Administration will continue to study the Fact-Finder's report. During that time, since the Fact-Finder failed to provide specific contract language in her recommendations in many areas, we think it would be helpful for both sides to engage in further dialogue. Please provide dates and times that you and your team can meet this week.

One additional point: The Fact-Finder clearly expressed her hopes that the parties "will find the appropriate spots to tweak the Fact-Finder's recommendations as necessary into a form that will be acceptable to the extent that it will allow the parties to go forward in pursuing the central objective of their work: providing the best university education possible for the students entrusted to their care and instruction."

We remain hopeful that we can continue to work together to develop a contract that is fair, equitable and focused squarely on the future success of our students and our entire university community.

YSU-OEA membership will meet Tuesday, Sept. 29, to discuss the fact-finder's report and to open voting to membership on whether to accept or reject the report. It is anticipated that YSU administration and the Board of Trustees will vote to accept or reject the report following the trustees' meeting Monday, Oct. 5.