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YOUNGSTOWN — A state board has ruled that a teachers strike in Youngstown is legal.
The ruling from the State Employment Relations Board came Friday afternoon, following a 10 a.m. hearing to determine whether the Youngstown Education Association was within its rights to strike after failed attempts at negotiations with Youngstown City School District.
Teachers voted to strike Monday and were in the pocket lines Wednesday, as the school year was set to begin.
The district filed a complaint with SERB earlier this week, arguing that the union struck without participating in state mandated fact finding.
According to a document from SERB, outlining its ruling, the YEA has maintained that its contract includes a mutually agreed-upon dispute settlement procedure (MAD) that supersedes the fact-finding obligation under Ohio Revised Code, YEA says the contract only requires a mediation process, which the union says it fulfilled.
The school board stipulates that the MAD exists in the contract, but argued that it does not allow for the YEA to forego fact-finding in negotiations.
The district’s complaint asked SERB to declare the strike unauthorized, and to grant a stay until the parties could determine the validity of the MAD in rendering the fact-finding process unnecessary. The district argued that it could only be determined through a SERB hearing, not through the process outlined under ORC regarding collective bargaining.
SERB found, however, that even the cases YCSD presented in its argument show that SERB can allow for the determination of a MAD’s validity through that ORC negotiating process.
The board also found that while the bargaining parties can abandon the MAD in favor of other processes, by means of a joint filing with SERB, that their separate filings about the fact-finding process — and YEA’s subsequent retraction of its filing — do not constitute a joint request.
The ruling said the school district has the burden of proving that a strike is unauthorized, and SERB found that YCSD did not meet that burden.
YEA spokesman Jim Courim said the union will release a statement shortly.
The district has scheduled a special meeting for 5 p.m. today, with a discussion about negotiations and executive session on the agenda.