Teachers' Union Files 3rd Unfair Labor Charge Against Strongsville School Board

The Strongsville Education Association on Tuesday filed an unfair labor practice charge -- its third -- against the Strongsville School Board, charging the district backpedaled on its offer for insurance pickups.

The claim says the board "has engaged in regressive bargaining techniques, which move negotiations backward instead of forward."

Specifically, the complaint says the district in August 2012 presented a contract offer that included teachers paying 15 percent of their health insurance costs, with a cap of $75 per individual or $150 per family.

In February 2013, the board removed those caps from its offer.

"The new insurance proposal reflects regressive and bad faith bargaining by increasing the cost of healcare co-pays for (union) members," the filing says.

The Other Charges

On March 4, the SEA filed an ULP that says the school district forced teachers out of school buildings as soon as classes were over March 1, even though a strike vote had not yet been taken.

The charge also says school leaders have criticized and threatened union members with discipline or firing, and says publishing both sides' contract proposals on the school district's website, which is "bad faith bargaining."

On March 19, a ULP charge alleges that when the school district added a Negotiation News page to its website, it was attempting "to create ill will" toward the SEA, and by seeking input and publishing the proposals, "is attempting to directly deal through the community" rather than bargaining in good faith.

“I’m confused as to why the Board follows two sets of rules," SEA President Tracy Linscott said in a news release. "The federal mediator has said that we can meet without her to bargain at any time to reach an agreement and end the strike, yet the Board continually makes the false claim that this would be against the agreed upon terms of the negotiations process. But then Board releases both proposals blatantly against the rules. It seems like the only rules that matter to them are their own."

Other ULPs

The School Board has also filed two unfair labor practice charges against the teachers' union.

The first says teachers formed a human barricade and blocked the district's negotiating team as it left a negotiating session, and also pounded on cars and disrupted the session.

The second says the union is breaking the law by holding protests in front of school board members' homes and their workplaces.

The filing of the SEA's third ULP charge comes the same day both sides are back at the bargaining table. The federal mediator overseeing the negotiations called a session for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

For other stories on the teachers' strike, click here.

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