Saturday, May 20, 2000
OSU strike appears ended
Workers scheduled to return Monday in tentative deal
By John McCarthy
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS — Ohio State University and a striking union reached a tentative deal Friday to end a 19-day walkout over wages.
The proposal offers basically the same raise that janitors, bus drivers and other workers turned down earlier in the strike. But it includes a signing bonus and higher raises for workers at Ohio State University Medical Center.
“We pressed our issues and the university listened and we listened to the university's issues,” said Gary Josephson, president of Communications Workers of America Local 4501.
“We are asking our members to return to work starting Monday.”
About 1,900 members the local walked off the job May 1. Trash pickup and bus service on the 48,000-student campus were disrupted earlier in the strike, and regular cafeteria service was suspended.
The university used supervisors, nonunion workers and volunteers to provide the essential services needed to keep the university running. The university also brought in temporary workers, primarily to staff dining halls.
The union workers currently earn about $10 an hour.
The agreement would spread a $2-an-hour raise over three years, but hospital workers would get an additional 40 cents an hour the second year and 50 cents an hour the third year. Each worker would get a $420 signing bonus. The agreement maintained provisions concerning apprenticeship programs, benefits and incentive pay.
The union presented the offer early Friday morning and university officials agreed but insisted that the union members return to work on Monday, Mr. Josephson said.
“They felt a little burned by the first tentative agreement,” Mr. Josephson said.
A check of major university intersections Friday afternoon found that pickets had abandoned them, something union members did not do while they voted on the previous settlement offer.
Workers originally had demanded an immediate $2 raise but later presented a proposal of $2.50 an hour over the life of the contract. They also wanted one pay scale for campus and OSU hospital workers.
Union members are expected to vote on the tentative agreement Tuesday through Thursday, Mr. Josephson said.
“We are enormously pleased that we have been able to reach this tentative agreement,” said William E. Kirwan, Ohio State president.
Larry Lewellen, associate vice president for human services, said the negotiations were cordial.
“We'll have no trouble at all rebuilding relationships among the managers and among the staff, we believe, out of this strike,” Mr. Lewellen said
Students and teachers have shown support for the workers. Early in the strike, some classes were held outside so students didn't have to cross picket lines. Graduate students urged a boycott of businesses that pay rent to Ohio State, including restaurants, copy centers and the bookstore.
Pickets also were responsible for a one-day work stoppage at Ohio Stadium, home of the university's football team, when they blocked the stadium's gates on May 12. Construction workers returned to work on the $187 million renovation the next day after the university got a court order limiting pickets.
During the strike, both poet Maya Angelou and NAACP President and Chief Executive Kweisi Mfume canceled campus appearances.
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