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Community Backs Social Workers in Ohio Dispute
Strong support from elected leaders and fellow unions in Akron, Ohio, is helping keep morale high among CWA Local 4546 members, who have been walking the picket line since mid-July.
A county councilman has called for the ouster of the Children Services Board, the Steelworkers are calling for the agency's administrator to be fired and the Autoworkers are looking for candidates to run against the county executive - all due to unhappiness with how the county has handled the work stoppage.
Several bargaining sessions were held in early December, but no agreement had been reached as the CWA News went to press.
About 270 social workers and support staff have been out of work since July 14 as the result of what the county says is a strike and the union says is a lockout. At issue is the union's call for caps on workers' caseloads, which they say are too high to adequately protect the at-risk children in their charge.
The community at large has stood solidly behind the workers, and public officials are speaking out, too. Summit County Councilman Tim Crawford recently called for the Children Services Board of Trustees to be removed from office, an effort to get CSB Executive Director Joe White to the bargaining table. Crawford's resolution is pending.
Meanwhile, the Steelworkers are seeking White's ouster, angry about comments he made regarding rubber workers in the course of complaining publicly about the local.
White wrote to several thousand supporters of the agency, claiming the local has been "inflexible and unwilling to adapt to changing times," then added: "It is this type of backward thinking and a failure to collaborate that drove the rubber industry from our city," as reported by the Akron Beacon-Journal.
Jack Hefner, vice president of USWA Local 2, which represents the rubber workers, told the paper that White's words are "a direct anti-union assault on the people who built this community."
Further, the UAW local is looking for people to run against Summit County Executive James McCarthy, saying their members are displeased with how he has handled the crisis.
"McCarthy isn't treating labor families right," Tom Seese, chairman of the UAW's Community Action Program Council told the Beacon-Journal. "We support candidates that support us, and he's not supporting us right now."
Local 4546 President Robin Schenault said spirits are good on the picket line, even with the weather getting cold. "I've been worried to death about them, but they don't seem to mind. They're all telling me, 'We're OK."'
A county councilman has called for the ouster of the Children Services Board, the Steelworkers are calling for the agency's administrator to be fired and the Autoworkers are looking for candidates to run against the county executive - all due to unhappiness with how the county has handled the work stoppage.
Several bargaining sessions were held in early December, but no agreement had been reached as the CWA News went to press.
About 270 social workers and support staff have been out of work since July 14 as the result of what the county says is a strike and the union says is a lockout. At issue is the union's call for caps on workers' caseloads, which they say are too high to adequately protect the at-risk children in their charge.
The community at large has stood solidly behind the workers, and public officials are speaking out, too. Summit County Councilman Tim Crawford recently called for the Children Services Board of Trustees to be removed from office, an effort to get CSB Executive Director Joe White to the bargaining table. Crawford's resolution is pending.
Meanwhile, the Steelworkers are seeking White's ouster, angry about comments he made regarding rubber workers in the course of complaining publicly about the local.
White wrote to several thousand supporters of the agency, claiming the local has been "inflexible and unwilling to adapt to changing times," then added: "It is this type of backward thinking and a failure to collaborate that drove the rubber industry from our city," as reported by the Akron Beacon-Journal.
Jack Hefner, vice president of USWA Local 2, which represents the rubber workers, told the paper that White's words are "a direct anti-union assault on the people who built this community."
Further, the UAW local is looking for people to run against Summit County Executive James McCarthy, saying their members are displeased with how he has handled the crisis.
"McCarthy isn't treating labor families right," Tom Seese, chairman of the UAW's Community Action Program Council told the Beacon-Journal. "We support candidates that support us, and he's not supporting us right now."
Local 4546 President Robin Schenault said spirits are good on the picket line, even with the weather getting cold. "I've been worried to death about them, but they don't seem to mind. They're all telling me, 'We're OK."'