Posts tagged Ohio State Employment Relations Board
Opinion: National Teacher Union is Fighting Teachers … to Prevent Unionization
August 30, 2026 // In 2025, a group of teachers in Montpelier, Ohio, decided it was time to move on from our affiliation with the Ohio Education Association (OEA) and the National Education Association (NEA). A super-majority of the more than 70 teachers in our bargaining unit signed a petition requesting to hold a vote that could replace the OEA with a new, independent, local union: the Association of Montpelier Educators. We filed our petition for a representation election on April 8, 2026. That election should have happened by now. Instead, the OEA and NEA — national unions that bill themselves as champions of unions and defenders of teachers’ voices — are fighting our effort to form our own local union and give us back our voice.
Columbus Metropolitan latest among central Ohio libraries to form union
July 9, 2026 // According to secret ballot election results released July 7 by Ohio’s State Employment Relations Board, 86% of valid ballots agreed to unionize. The new union includes about 600 librarians, customer service specialists, youth engagement specialists, materials services associates, drivers, sorters and other library workers. It does not include management or security staff. The vote count was 368-60, with roughly 428 employees casting mail-in ballots, according to the Ohio Federation of Teachers, which began organizing the library's union in 2024. The union also represents many of central Ohio's suburban public libraries, including Worthington, Grandview Heights, Pickerington, Upper Arlington and Delaware County. All six now have labor contracts.
Columbus Metropolitan Library workers begin union vote
June 18, 2026 // Columbus Metropolitan Library employees begin voting on Tuesday to decide whether to unionize. The vote is scheduled to take place by mail from June 16 through June 30, with votes counted on July 7. The election comes after an estimated 600 eligible employees signed authorization cards in support of a vote to create a union. The employees would be represented by the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
OAPSE, We Did it Again!: The Buckeye Institute Takes 2nd OAPSE Union Wage Theft Case to Ohio Supreme Court
May 5, 2026 // The Buckeye Institute filed its brief asking the Ohio Supreme Court to accept jurisdiction in Vanderveer v. Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) and either hold it pending the court’s decision in Sheldon v. OAPSE or consolidate it with Sheldon—one of The Buckeye Institute’s other cases seeking to end union wage theft practices that is pending Ohio Supreme Court review.
Columbus Metropolitan Library faces union busting allegations as June vote approaches
April 9, 2026 // "CML is aware of the charges, and we believe they have no merit. We look forward to demonstrating that lack of merit to the State Employment Relations Board, which will ultimately make a determination on OFT's claims," the statement said. The statement said CML respects the rights of our employees who are for or against unionization and continue to comply with the law. The statement also touted what it calls competitive wages for all employees, a comprehensive benefits package and paid time off. "Our compensation and benefits serve as a benchmark for libraries in our region and throughout Ohio," the statement said.
Op-ed: Ohio needs to wrest control of public schools from the teachers’ un
August 25, 2025 // Bureaucratic schools where merit doesn’t matter. Unions have used their clout, including their ability to elect pro-union school boards, to secure lengthy, incredibly detailed employment contracts that advance their interests while tying up school leaders with red tape. These contracts include job protections (even for incompetent teachers), onerous procedural hoops that schools must follow to evaluate or discipline an employee, and benefits that exceed what many private sector employees enjoy (e.g., generous healthcare, even for retirees, and paid leave). Moreover, following a union-supported state law, these contracts require Ohio teachers to be paid according to rigid salary schedules that reward seniority and degrees instead of classroom effectiveness and individual talent—a merit-based approach to compensation that has proven to benefit students in the (few) places where it has been tried. Escalating spending.
The Buckeye Institute Charges OCSEA with Coercion in Unfair Labor Practice Case
June 17, 2025 // “Few would contest that workers are both legally and morally entitled to make a free, uncoerced, and informed choice as to whether to join a union,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “But coercion is just what the union employed when it had Mr. Smith sign and turn in a union membership agreement before providing any information about the union, and then refused to return the agreement at the end of the orientation.” As outlined in the statement of facts, at Mr. Smith’s first-day orientation, Tim Federkiel, president of AFSCME/OCSEA Chapter 2200, had new employees sign and turn in union membership agreements before providing any information about the union. Throughout his presentation, Mr. Federkiel made political statements, and when Mr. Smith asked for the union application back and told Mr. Federkiel he did not want to join the union, Mr. Federkiel “replied aggressively, ‘No,’ it was too late, he had it now.” Indeed, Mr. Smith has not received a copy of the application despite his repeated requests.
OHIO UNION SETTLES, PAYS NONUNION WORKERS, TOO, WHO EARNED BONUS
December 27, 2023 // The Ohio Association of Public School Employees AFSCME Local 4/Local 673 (OAPSE) had negotiated into its collective bargaining agreement with the school district (CBA) a provision calling for the one-time distribution of $8,000 to a bargaining unit of employees consisting of bus drivers and cafeteria workers. This compensation (funded by the taxpayers through the district) was to be distributed to the employees according to work they had performed outside of normal working hours. The problem with the CBA provision, however, was that the district tasked OAPSE with fairly distributing the money.
The Buckeye Institute Charges Government Union with Wage Theft in New Case
December 11, 2023 // “Ms. Littlejohn is not a member of the government union, but the union continues to use an unethical legal sleight-of-hand to steal money from her paycheck,” said Jay R. Carson, senior litigator at The Buckeye Institute and an attorney representing Ms. Littlejohn. “If a company did this to these very same union officials, they would be irate, and rightly so, but apparently, they have no shame in treating Ms. Littlejohn in this disgraceful manner.”
OHIO LABOR BOARD FINDS CAUSE TO BELIEVE UNION DISCRIMINATED
September 8, 2023 // By law, OAPSE must represent every worker in the bargaining unit, even nonmembers. Accordingly, it also had the obligation to distribute the money to all employees but, to the surprise of exactly no one, OAPSE refused to pay compensation to the seven employees in the bargaining unit who had resigned their union membership. This was OAPSE’s way of retaliating against the non-union employees for having the audacity to keep their own money in their own pockets instead of funding a union that long ago began prioritizing its political and social agenda over advocating for workers. Unfortunately for OAPSE, retaliating against employees because they exercise their First Amendment rights violates not just the U.S. Constitution, but also Ohio law. For its part, the Southington School District clearly made a bad decision when it entrusted OAPSE with $8,000 in employee compensation, and one certainly does not need hindsight to know that OAPSE would end up discriminating against employees who have the courage to stand up to union bullying.