By Jennifer Mrozowski
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WALNUT HILLS - The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers union Monday accused the Cincinnati school board of bad-faith bargaining, blasted the superintendent's leadership and filed an unfair labor practice claim against the school district for rejecting a tentative teachers contract last week.

Union officials also asked a state-appointed fact-finder to rule on disputed portions of the tentative contract, which representatives of the board and union had agreed to March 9 before the board voted against it.

"Superintendent (Alton) Frailey is from Texas," said union President Sue Taylor during a press conference at the federation's headquarters in Walnut Hills. "I don't know how they do things down there, but in Ohio, under our labor laws, it is a violation of law to claim your bargaining team has authority to represent you, to sign an agreement and then to later renege on that claim."

Frailey said late Monday that the bulk of his bargaining team attempted to negotiate in good faith, and he said he was troubled by Taylor's remarks.

"I'm very disappointed in what I'm told were some very personal attacks against me by Ms. Taylor," he said. "It's very unfortunate we devolved into that. It's totally unnecessary and very unproductive."

Florence Newell, board president, said the board had been notified of the union's action before a 6 p.m. meeting and had not had a chance to talk about it.

Representatives of the board and union had been negotiating since December on a three-year contract for the district's 3,500 teachers, nurses and counselors.

A one-year contract extension that had been agreed to in December 2002 expired Dec. 31. Teachers are now working on a day-to-day extension.

Negotiations broke down Friday after the board rejected the contract proposal, which included a 3.2 percent raise for teachers this year.

Frailey and several board members said the tentative agreement neglected key issues they found important, including a system to pay teachers based on their teaching performance rather than seniority. Frailey also said he had not been informed of the final details of the tentative agreement before it was made public.

"I am at the mercy of folks who report to me," he said.

Taylor said the superintendent and board should have been aware of what their team was negotiating in the 33 separate sessions.

"How could (Frailey) not know?" Taylor asked. "If he didn't know, perhaps he is incapable of running a district of this size and complexity. Perhaps we need new, more accountable leaders."

Taylor said the board and superintendent's team never raised the idea of a new teacher pay system.

"Most of the items that the district's administration and the school board lament were not included in the contract were not even introduced by their own negotiators."

Teachers are willing to discuss a new pay system, she said.

"It was the district's negotiators that proposed further study rather than implementation of a new pay plan at this time - not the teachers," she said.

Though the board rejected the tentative contract, teachers continued voting Friday and Saturday. Ninety percent of voting members supported the agreement.

The independent fact-finder has 14 days to rule on disputed portions of the tentative agreement. The sides then have seven days to vote whether to reject the fact-finder's recommendations. The recommendations are binding unless a majority vote of the board or a majority of the teachers rejects the fact-finder's ruling.

The unfair labor practice claim goes to the Ohio State Employment Relations Board, which will consider whether the board bargained improperly.

If the state board says the school board erred, the state could order the district to bargain in good faith in future negotiations, Taylor said.

If the teachers went on strike and also won their unfair labor practice claim, the state board could force the district to reimburse teachers for days they were on strike, she said. The teachers have not said they plan to strike.

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E-mail jmrozowski@enquirer.com