A grievance is a claim that a specific provision of the agreement has been violated. It is not a general complaint process — it has to point to contract language.
You have 45 calendar days from when you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, the problem (Article 8.1). Missing it can end an otherwise strong case. If you are close to the deadline, say so in your first sentence when you contact the chapter.
Informal discussion before filing is neither discouraged nor prohibited, and many problems resolve there. But the forty-five-day clock runs regardless, so don’t let an informal conversation quietly consume it.
The steps
Step 1 — Informal pre-grievance. Submitted to the Director of Faculty Relations (DFR) on the Faculty Pre-Grievance Form by the Grievance Chair or the faculty member. Within ten business days, the DFR schedules a meeting with you and, if you ask, a YSU-OEA representative. They issue a disposition within ten business days after that meeting. You then have ten business days to appeal to Step 2, at which point Human Resources assigns a grievance number.
Step 2 — Provost or designee. A hearing within ten business days of Human Resources receiving your appeal, and a disposition within ten business days after the hearing. You have ten business days to appeal to arbitration, and the Association then has ten business days to state whether it supports the appeal.
Step 3 — Mediation, if both sides agree. Within fourteen calendar days of the Step 2 disposition, the parties may jointly choose mediation through the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). Mediation is conducted within thirty days of a mediator being appointed, either party may end it at any time, and costs are shared equally.
Step 4 — Arbitration. The Association requests a panel of seven arbitrators from FMCS, preferably based in Ohio, and the parties alternately strike names until one remains. The arbitrator has no power to add to, subtract from, or modify the terms of the agreement.
Two rules that cut in opposite directions
If you miss an appeal deadline, the grievance is treated as resolved on the basis of the Administration’s last disposition. If the Administration misses a deadline, the grievance advances automatically to the next step without a disposition being required.
Time limits can be extended, but only by mutual agreement of the Administration, the Association, and the grievant. Get any extension in writing.
Who decides whether a case goes to arbitration
You can file and pursue a grievance. The decision to carry a case into arbitration belongs to the Association. This is the point members most often misunderstand — the chapter supporting you at Step 2 is not the same as the chapter committing to arbitrate, which is a substantial expenditure of chapter resources and is decided case by case.
Other things worth knowing
- The burden of proof is preponderance of the evidence.
- Anyone named as the subject of a grievance may not serve as hearing officer or take any part in its disposition.
- Either party must furnish the other, on written request, information relevant to a grievance.
- All forms are processed electronically through Human Resources.
- You may present and settle a grievance without Association intervention, provided the settlement is consistent with the agreement and the Association has had the opportunity to be present.
- Grievances are filed at Step 1 unless the Administration and the Association agree in writing to start higher.
Where the grievance procedure does not reach
Tenure, workload, faculty evaluation, peer evaluation, student evaluation of teaching, post-tenure review, and retrenchment now sit outside the agreement, and the relevant articles state that compliance is not subject to challenge through grievance or arbitration. Those subjects have their own Board policies and their own internal routes — the annual evaluation appeal, the tenure appeal, the post-tenure review appeal to the president.
With one exception. The tenure policy itself preserves a grievance for procedural violations: if the process described in Policy 3356-10-30 was not followed, that is grievable under the agreement, at both the appeal and terminal-year stages. The claim has to be about procedure rather than about the merits of the decision.
Knowing which category your problem falls into at the start will save you weeks. If you are not sure, ask — that is exactly the kind of question the Grievance Chair (grievance@ysuoea.org) can answer in one conversation. See SB 1 and Your Contract.