YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – It’s early August, and bargaining units representing the American Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals Local 711 meet in North Jackson with their hospital management counterparts to hammer out the final issues related to the renewal of their collective bargaining agreement.
Negotiators are focused on four issues. For Local 711, the two major concerns are salary increases and emergency attendance procedures. For hospital management, bargainers want union concessions on rising health care costs and policies regarding social media.
After an afternoon session of trading proposals back and forth, Local 711 and managers of Getswelle Hospital reached a tentative contract with the assistance of a mediator. Now all that remains is a Local 711 ratification vote – a vote that will never take place.
That’s because there is no such union as the American Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals. Nor is there a Getswelle Hospital. Instead, the scenario is part of a mock collective bargaining program created by DePaul University’s Labor Education Center in Chicago that is designed for high school students.
Intro to Labor Relations
The objective is to introduce the role of organized labor during the bargaining process to these students and educate young people about the rights of workers.
Twenty students from area high schools participated in a daylong workshop at the United Auto Workers Local 1112 union hall in North Jackson on Aug. 5. The program was administered by the Northeast Ohio Worker Center, Cleveland, and was the first time it was extended to students in the Valley.
“The DePaul program has a curriculum that’s been in use for more than 10 years,” says Grace Heffernan, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Worker Center. “We brought that curriculum to Ohio last year.”
A successful launch in Cleveland in 2024 caught the attention of local labor leaders, who thought the idea would resonate in the Mahoning Valley with its long history of organizing. “It was such a smashing success that our partners said you have to bring this to the Mahoning Valley,” Heffernan says. “This summer was our pilot program there.”
The Worker Center partnered with organizations such as UAW Local 1112; Communications Workers of America; The Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley; the United Steelworkers union; and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – or AFSCME – Ohio Council 8; and a host of other labor and community organizations that support the program and center.
“The point is not to create experts in collective bargaining,” Heffernan says. “The bigger thing that we want people to leave with is that the outcomes of their life and community are not predetermined. They get to have a say in that.”
Students participating in the program were awarded a $75 stipend, Heffernan says. “This wouldn’t have been possible without our partners,” she adds.
Sarah Lowry, senior director of community impact at the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, says the program also serves to build skill sets among young people, providing them with a sense of empowerment. The Community Foundation provided $8,000 through its general grant program through the Kennedy Family Fund and Arnett Family Fund. Another $5,500 contribution was made through the William Swanston Charitable Fund, a supporting organization of the Community Foundation.
“We just felt that it’s a worthwhile program – learning some of the core skills around communication, negotiation and problem solving,” she says. “It was a good showing of high school students, and it was very interactive.”
The program helps identify key concerns of both labor and management during negotiations, Lowry says, and then addresses how to resolve any impasse that may derail the bargaining process. “How do you find a path forward with the understanding that there’s probably going to need to be some compromise.”
Moreover, the inaugural program in the Mahoning Valley is the first step toward leveraging additional partnerships with educational and labor leaders to potentially expand outreach, Lowry says. “The summer program was a launch, and they’re looking to develop relationships here for future opportunities,” she says.
Heffernan says Local 1112 presented the ideal backdrop to launch the program locally. “It’s an important house of labor in the Mahoning Valley,” she says, referring to the union’s long representation of workers at General Motors’ Lordstown plant. That plant’s closure in 2019 could have easily led to the demise of Local 1112, but a successful campaign to organize Ultium Cells’ electric-vehicle battery plant in Lordstown resurrected the Local. “There’s renewed energy around this labor hall as a result of organizing in the Mahoning Valley,” she says.
Experiencing Bargaining
Representatives from union locals were on hand to guide students through the bargaining process.
Much of the morning session was devoted to an introduction to organized labor and the role unions play in various communities. Students heard from Local 1112 President George Goranitis, who spoke about the local’s efforts to organize Ultium Cells – a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution – and then setting in motion a movement that culminated in GM folding its EV battery employees into the UAW national agreement.
Then, students were divided into groups – half of the group representing labor and the other half playing a management role. Each group was paired with two union volunteer coaches who have experience in collective bargaining.
“You just kind of go through the positions with the kids and then ask, ‘what’s the next step?’” says Ron Gay, staff representative with Communications Workers of America District 4. “Some of the kids become extremely engaged,” he says. “One student on my team was busy crunching numbers, just like I would, trying to figure things out.”
Gay says that some students were more knowledgeable about organized labor issues because of their family backgrounds or because they hold a job that is represented by a union. This proved to be an asset, because those students provided help to others with less experience or knowledge of the subject. “Some of the more knowledgeable kids help out the other ones,” he says, not unlike what occurs in real-life bargaining sessions.
“There were times when it was a little bit difficult to try to get the other side to understand where you’re coming from,” says Ian Wallace, a student at Ursuline High School. “It was pretty interesting.”
Wallace says he appreciated how program facilitators took time to explain the intricacies of union representation and respected the students’ views, regardless of their understanding of labor issues. “They didn’t try to oversimplify stuff, they didn’t put people on the spot,” he says.
Overall, the daylong program helped Wallace better understand how workers can have a voice. “It showed me that workers have the ability to stand up for their rights,” he says.
Pictured at top: Bill Padisak Jr., president, Mahoning-Trumbull AFL-CIO; Brittney Howard, mediator, Wellberry ADR; and Grace Heffernan, executive director, Northeast Ohio Worker Center.