Public Records: Ukeme Awakessien Jeter is a union buster
Upper Arlington's ostensibly Democratic mayor is the only candidate in the three-way Ohio House District 7 primary with a documented history of union busting.
On Jan. 27, The Rooster blew the whistle on Upper Arlington’s Democratic mayor, Ukeme Awakessian Jeter, kicking off her Ohio House District 7 campaign with a nest of stone-cold Republican hobgoblins.
Awakessian Jeter’s Republican leanings go beyond accepting money from the likes of former governor John Kasich’s communications director in a bid for political promotion.
According to a treasure trove of public records obtained by The Rooster, Awekessian Jeter’s administration engaged in textbook Republican union-busting tactics when fleet workers and library employees attempted to join their city colleagues with Teamsters Local 284, which has represented other divisions of full- and part-time Upper Arlington employees since Jan. 1999.
The trouble started on Nov. 9, 2022, when Upper Arlington Public Library Executive Beth Hatch contracted Jonathan Downes of Zashin & Rich, Co., LPA. to represent management in negotiations against the Teamsters.
Downes is a notorious union-busting lawyer who once pitched then-Governor Kasich’s infamous SB-5 legislation as a “cost-saving measure” because it mandated public-sector employees to pay at least 15% of their healthcare costs.
Kasich and Downes’ dream of gutting public employees’ rights to collectively bargain would have become reality hadn’t Ohio’s hog voters rebelled at the ballot box in 2011.
What follows is a condensed timeline of events supported by the public records in the aforementioned dossier.
Feb. 20, 2025 — Teamsters Local 284 notified Upper Arlington that 100% of its fleet workers had signed union cards and requested voluntary recognition from the city.
Yet somehow, on Feb. 28, Zashin & Rich sent a $400 invoice to Upper Arlington before a contract was even in place between the firm and the city.
March 11, 2025 — Assistant City Manager Jackie Thiel and Public Service Director Gary Wilfong met with fleet workers to hear concerns and discuss wages, certifications and evaluations. Thiel would later conspicuously admit that he hadn’t met with the group “in a few years.”
That same day, City Attorney Darren Shulman contracted with Downes as special counsel against the Teamsters’ Petition for Amendment to include fleet workers in the municipal park bargaining unit.
March 12, 2025 — Upper Arlington representatives had another meeting with fleet workers, where they discussed pay structures and civil service protections while noting the city “has a better relationship with other unions.”
April 1, 2025 — Teamsters Local 284 asserted to the State Employee Relations Board (SERB) that Assistant City Manager Thiel and Public Service Director Wiltfong met with individual employees. We know this because employees recorded their conversations.
April 7, 2025 — Teamsters 284 filed an Unfair Labor Practice case against the city, alleging the city interfered with employees’ rights during the organizing campaign.
April 9, 2025 — Zashin & Rice LLP filed a notice of appearance with SERB to represent the city.
Nov. 13, 2025 — SERB determined that “probable cause” existed for the Teamsters’ unfair labor practice claim against Upper Arlington, and both parties were ordered into mediation.
Dec. 10, 2025 — Mayor Awakessien Jeter posted about taking coffee meetings from Starbucks, while Starbucks Workers United were on strike in Ohio over the lack of a bargained contract.
Two weeks later, on Christmas Eve, SERB announces a mail-ballot election to be conducted between Feb. 17, 2026 and March 3, 2026.
Jan 27, 2026 — Mayor Jeter hosted her campaign kickoff as a Democratic candidate for Ohio House District 7. The host committee included City Councilman Todd Walther and former City Councilmen Brian Close and Jim Lynch—all three have a 100% Republican voting record as previously reported by The Rooster.
Feb. 3, 2026 — The City of Upper Arlington sent a postcard rife with union-busting language to fleet employees. The flyer listed Assistant City Manager Thiel and Public Service Director Wiltfong as contacts for questions:
Feb. 12, 2026 — Mayor Awakessian Jeter met with local labor leaders with respect to her candidacy in the Ohio House District 7, per multiple sources in the room. She did not discuss the ongoing labor strife with fleet or library workers, but noted she saw no problem with the city's conduct during the negotiations.
Feb. 13, 2026 — City Manager Steven Schoeny emailed the fleet workers, addressing their concerns about the union-busting postcard and letter. He reiterated the position that Assistant City Manager Thiel, Public Service Director Wilfong, City Attorney Shulman and himself were only trying to ensure the workers had “all the information needed” to make the appropriate decision about unionizing.
Feb. 13, 2026 — City Councilman Benjamin Tracy posted on Facebook in explicit support of the fleet workers organizing.
Former City Councilwoman Michaela Burriss, herself a candidate in the Ohio House District 7 race, posted on Facebook in support of the fleet workers organizing and called out the city’s union-busting activities.
March 9, 2026 — Fleet workers voted unanimously to join the existing Teamsters Local 284 bargaining unit.
City Council met later in the day, where Assistant City Manager Thiel and City Attorney Shulaman discussed the unionization of the fleet workers.
You can watch that meeting in its entirety through the city’s website, but here are the pertinent details:
54m00s: Assistant City Manager Thiel complains that the Unfair Labor Practice notice filed by the Teamsters in April 2025 was the third in her tenure, claiming another one came after the Teamsters missed an arbitration deadline in 2021 and the other because they didn’t promote a union steward in 2023.
55m00s: Councilman John Kulewicz, a Democratic candidate for Ohio Attorney General, asked if there was an option for the city to voluntarily recognize the members into the union.
Shulman stated the city “should have recognized the members,” but cited the “community of interest disparity” between fleet workers and the existing unit.
58m40s: Councilman Benjamin Tracy asked if there was an “indication as to why fleet workers did not want to negotiate their own contract and insisted on joining the existing unit.” Shulman did not provide a specific answer.
85m20s: Mayor Awakessian Jeter asked about the impact of service quality to residents of Upper Arlington, mentioning leaf removal specifically.
Thiel stated it’s not in “anyone’s interest” to disrupt service, but that he didn’t know what the impact of unionization would be.
89m30s: Councilman Kulewicz scolded Thiel and Shulman for not disclosing the Unfair Labor Practice to the Council in a prompt fashion. He went on to say that if workers want to join an existing bargaining unit, the burden is on the city to make it work.
Schoeney objected to the second statement, stating that the city has an obligation to “look out for the operation of the city,” and blamed the disruption on the Teamsters—an accusation that didn’t sit well with Councilman Kulewicz.
101m00s: Shulman stated the city mandated SERB mediation training for management employees, but neither he nor Thiel attended the training.
April 3, 2026 — SERB will presumably certify the election results at its next meeting.
April 6, 2026 — Upper Arlington adopted a new policy prohibiting employees from recording meetings with management. The policy was addressed to all staff by City Manager Schoeny.
April 7, 2026: Mayor Awakessian Jeter appeared at an official Upper Arlington event wearing a campaign button.
You can view the Union Bustin’ Ukeme trove of public records here.
In the interest of fairness, The Rooster gave Awakessian Jeter the chance to defend her record after an Ohio House District 7 candidate forum at The Ohio State University on April 9—a month after fleet workers voted unanimously to join the Teamsters.
Minutes after touting her city council colleagues electing her as mayor for her leadership skills during the forum, she threw the city manager under the bus while claiming no wrongdoing on her part.
You can watch the entire exchange here:
Awakessian Jeter wants to have it both ways. She cannot tout her leadership in Upper Arlington while disavowing the actions of her subordinates who engaged in a years-long attempt to deny public workers their right to collectively bargain.
Especially when her colleagues, Councilmen Kulewicz and Tracy, diagnosed the problem the second they heard about it.
In my opinion, Awalessian Jeter’s lack of understanding about organized labor can be traced to her four years at Taft Law Firm, which has a long and storied history of union-busting. It’s a job she held through January 2025—three years after becoming Upper Arlington’s first Black and immigrant mayor and city council president.
In the era of Trump and when the Democratic Party is hemorrhaging working-class voters, the superminority Ohio Democratic House Caucus doesn’t need a state representative who lacks the understanding of a core party constituency like organized labor—no matter how impressive their personal story might be.
This is a safe Democratic seat, and should not be held by someone who needs remedial classes about what unionization means to working people.
The Ohio AFL-CIO and Teamsters have endorsed Michaela Harris in this race, but The Rooster also walked away impressed with Dr. Zach Rossfeld in his limited speaking time at The Ohio State University’s candidate forum.
There is only one wrong option in this race, and that’s Mayor Awakessian Jeter.
THOSE WMDs. Democrats should treat Chief Justice John Roberts as a criminal co-conspirator… Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce abstains far more than his colleagues and won’t say why… Adopted and locked away: Kids promised “forever homes” instead confined in for-profit institutions… Black children were jailed for crimes that didn’t exist… An autopsy of MAGA Communism.