Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
A mediation session this week between Wright State University and a university union ended without resolution — and the union filed Thursday with the State Employment Relations Board to begin striking the university Feb. 3, said Tom Bellew, chief steward for Teamsters Local 957.
Wright State said it has given the union “its last, best and final offer of a new contract.”
“It’s still in our opinion not good enough,” Bellew said Friday. “We have a health insurance plan that will save the university hundreds of thousands, and they’re not in interested in taking or even talking about that.”
The Teamsters-represented bargaining unit of maintenance workers, technicians and other employees voted last month to strike if necessary over a string of contractual disagreements.
“It is truly disappointing Teamsters’ leaders rejected a resolution that is reasonable and favorable to their membership,” Wright State President Sue Edwards said in a campus email. “Our Teamsters employees are part of the Wright State family. Their work is invaluable to university operations. I remain optimistic that the broad membership, many of whom I’ve come to know personally, understand where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re headed. They want Wright State to succeed.”
The university said its representatives participated in a “lengthy mediation session” this week with representatives of Local No. 957.
