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State to Pursue ULPs in Ohio Caseworkers' Labor Dispute
The Ohio Employment Relations Board says CWA Local 4546 members at Summit County Children Services in Akron were harassed and intimidated in the days leading up to a work stoppage that is in its fourth month.
The board has agreed to prosecute children services' board management for behavior that includes threatening to permanently replace any worker who went on strike, threatening to file complaints with the state board that licenses social workers in order to get the employees' licenses revoked, and grossly misrepresenting union proposals, Local 4546 President Robin Schenault said.
"Basically, it was intimidation and scare tactics, and totally indicative of their overall culture," she said. "They simply won't respect their workers' rights."
The work stoppage began July 14 and is the longest in the agency's history. Schenault said none of the 270 picketers had crossed the line as of late October, committed to their goal of caps on caseloads so that social workers can better serve the children and families they are there to protect.
The union says members were locked out of their jobs. Management says the local went on strike. A hearings officer with the state Unemployment Compensation Review Commission has upheld management's position, but the local is appealing the ruling to the full board.
Meanwhile, Schenault said there's been no progress at the bargaining table. In fact, she said, the county continues to demand new concessions and has lowered its wage offer. Most recently, it wanted the union to allow supervisors to do bargaining unit work. She said the county has even reneged on 40 mostly routine issues that both sides had agreed to before the work stoppage.
"An issue that you got beyond, suddenly they resurrect it," she said. "It's a game but the name of the game is union-busting. They keep putting up new obstacles, proposing things that no union could ever agree to."
The community is still standing behind workers, she said, including daily blasts at management from radio deejays. Manage-ment got more bad press recently when supervisors filling in for caseworkers failed to help a mother and her children squatting in a vacant, drug-infested building.
Schenault said they told the building's landlord that they were "short-handed" and there was nothing more they could do. "But publicly they're claiming that all services are being provided," she said.
The board has agreed to prosecute children services' board management for behavior that includes threatening to permanently replace any worker who went on strike, threatening to file complaints with the state board that licenses social workers in order to get the employees' licenses revoked, and grossly misrepresenting union proposals, Local 4546 President Robin Schenault said.
"Basically, it was intimidation and scare tactics, and totally indicative of their overall culture," she said. "They simply won't respect their workers' rights."
The work stoppage began July 14 and is the longest in the agency's history. Schenault said none of the 270 picketers had crossed the line as of late October, committed to their goal of caps on caseloads so that social workers can better serve the children and families they are there to protect.
The union says members were locked out of their jobs. Management says the local went on strike. A hearings officer with the state Unemployment Compensation Review Commission has upheld management's position, but the local is appealing the ruling to the full board.
Meanwhile, Schenault said there's been no progress at the bargaining table. In fact, she said, the county continues to demand new concessions and has lowered its wage offer. Most recently, it wanted the union to allow supervisors to do bargaining unit work. She said the county has even reneged on 40 mostly routine issues that both sides had agreed to before the work stoppage.
"An issue that you got beyond, suddenly they resurrect it," she said. "It's a game but the name of the game is union-busting. They keep putting up new obstacles, proposing things that no union could ever agree to."
The community is still standing behind workers, she said, including daily blasts at management from radio deejays. Manage-ment got more bad press recently when supervisors filling in for caseworkers failed to help a mother and her children squatting in a vacant, drug-infested building.
Schenault said they told the building's landlord that they were "short-handed" and there was nothing more they could do. "But publicly they're claiming that all services are being provided," she said.