Now that bargaining and the fact-finding hearings are complete, many state bargaining unit employees are wondering what happens next in the bargaining process. Soon, employees will receive the Tentative Agreement through their state or personal emails. The Tentative Agreement will contain all the contract changes that management and the OCSEA bargaining teams have tentatively agreed to. It will also contain information on what the union’s major wins are as well as management’s takeaways. Articles not agreed to, will not appear in the Tentative Agreement.
What the Tentative Agreement won’t contain are those articles that will be decided by the Fact Finder. Those articles include Article 36 – Wages, Article 20 – Health Care, Appendix N – Work Area Agreements and Article 13 – Schedules. Fact Finder Rob Stein, who is deciding those issues, is expected to release his report by April 19. To read more about what happened during fact finding, go HERE (log in required).
Once the Fact Finding Report is issued, it will also be emailed to OCSEA members under the state contract. Hard copies of the Fact Finding Report will be available at regional contract information meetings around the state beginning April 25 where members can attend to ask questions of the OCSEA bargaining team.
Contract voting will take place at your local union chapter after the regional meeting in your area is held. All OCSEA members are encouraged to attend one of the roadshows. Go HERE for a complete list of roadshows.