New unfair labor practice charge filed

CELINA - Strained negotiations between the school board and the Celina Education Association led to the filing of another unfair labor practice charge last week.

On Thursday, the CEA filed an unfair labor practice charge alleging Celina City Schools Board of Education "has failed and refused to bargain in good faith with the CEA" and "has discriminated and retaliated against the CEA and its members."

Previously, the school board had filed an unfair labor practice against the union on July 31 claiming the CEA "engaged in bad-faith bargaining tactics, which included acts of regressive and surface bargaining."

On Sept. 2, the CEA in turn filed a charge claiming the board had filed the unfair labor practice charge "to intimidate the CEA, publicly shame the CEA's leadership and exert unfair leverage on the bargaining practice."

In the CEA's most recent charge, union members assert the school board erred in posting contract proposals from the board and the CEA to the board's public website.

CEA spokesman Steve Stewart on Saturday released a statement along with the unfair labor practice charge.

"The school board has been discussing negotiations in public venues - school board meetings, school board candidate forums and on social media. The CEA was forced to file the Unfair Labor Practice charge against the board because Ohio law clearly states negotiations are to be conducted in private. The board's open comments were misleading and made in order to directly deal with the CEA members. The board's actions constitute interference with CEA as its sole bargaining representative and coercion of the CEA membership," Stewart said.

Asked for a response to the allegations, board spokesman Matt Gilmore voiced a brief statement to the newspaper this morning.

"We don't file ULP's for political purposes and we don't issue press releases when we do," he said.

The charge also alleges that board member Cindy Piper "admitted to disclosing specific information shared at the bargaining table with the public" in an email.

The unfair labor practice charge further claims that at the bargaining session prior to Piper's email, the CEA had requested additional bargaining dates but were told by the federal mediator and the board's attorney that "setting a future mediation date was premature."

The union also charged the board with detailing its bargaining position and arguments before a public audience at its Sept. 28 meeting.

At that meeting, board members invited the public to ask questions. An hourlong discussion included talk about the high turnover rate of Celina teachers, funding questions, the board's lawyer and pay discrepancies created by step freezes.

The charge came just days before Tuesday's election in which three school board seats are up for grabs. Incumbents Ken Fetters and Amy Hoyng face challengers Mark King, Bill Sell, Curt Shellabarger and Barb Vorhees.

Contracts for Celina teachers expired Aug. 31.