Almost seven months on strike comes with a lot of picketing and rallies for Lorain County Job and Family Services workers.
The JFS labor union –represented by United Auto Workers Local 2192 – have been at odds over a new collective bargaining agreement that has led to a strike nearing seven months with unfair labor practice charges filed against both parties earlier this year.
“This is the longest public sector strike in the state of Ohio, so yes, it's unheard of,” said UAW regional director David Green. “If you lock us in a room for two days, we would have come out with an agreement and be done with it. But the commissioners have refused to sit and talk.”
Rallies take place outside the county administration building in Elyria, with the county commissioners above on the fourth floor.
Commissioner David Moore said the county will not be negotiating.
“There’s no need to,” Moore said. “The last and best offer is what's on the table. They decided to strike in the middle of negotiations, and it forced our hand to go into a last and best final offer.”
The union said the commissioners have not met for negotiations since January. The union went on strike in February.
Since then, both parties filed unlawful labor practice charges against each other, getting Ohio's State Employment Relations Board (SERB) involved with a voluntary mediation March.
“We can make some suggestions, but it's not something we can tell the parties to do,” said SERB mediator Chris Young. “We can't force anything on anybody. Basically, we're just pretty neutral in everything that we say and do, and those meetings and discussions are confidential under state law.”
Both parties did get rulings from SERB last month on the unfair labor practice charges, with all claims dismissed.
The county filed a charge in April saying the union violated state law by “engaging in direct-dealing and by attempting to cause the employer to engage in direct-dealing.” The SERB investigation determined no probable cause existed.
The union filed a charge in February saying the union violated state law by “failing to bargain in good faith when it engaged in surface bargaining, sent its bargaining representatives to the table with no authority to make decisions and for declaring impasse when the union was still willing to bargain.” The SERB investigation again determined no probable cause existed.
“The charges have been dropped, so it's the perfect time for us to get back to the table,” Green said.
The commissioners see it differently.
“SERB ruled in our favor,” Moore said. “There is no legal duty to bargain any further with the UAW.”
Through the half-year of picketing, some JFS clients have complained about slow services.
Jill Wesell-Herron is the director of Welcome Nursing Home in Oberlin, where most of the nursing home’s residents utilize Medicaid and depend on JFS workers to file the paperwork.
“It is a very detailed, comprehensive, knowledge-based process," Wessell-Herron said. "So, it really takes some expertise to be able to process these applications. We recognize how important they are to our overall business and we're really needing them to be functional and back in the office and processing apps.”
Residents with pending applications are living in the nursing home and the business does not get paid until the applications are approved. Wessell-Herron said she had as many as 15 pending Medicaid applications at one time and about 13 pending right now.
The commissioners said the county brought in temporary JFS workers from nearby counties to help.
The union said 4 to 5 members left the picket line to return to work.
JFS worker and union co-chair Nadine Plavsich said some of the JFS staffers are so underpaid that they are eligible for some of the services it provides, like federal food assistance.
“The commissioners should be ashamed of that,” Plavsich said. “We can go as long as it takes. Our members are strong.”
Meanwhile, the union started a political campaign to defeat Commissioner Jeff Ridell, in hopes a change will result in further negotiations and an eventual deal. Commissioners called the last rally “just a political event for the Democratic party.”
The county’s offer would provide scale adjustments, 12% in compensation and a 1% bonus program in a three-year contract.
The union is looking for one dollar more per hour on top of the county’s offer.