CLEVELAND, Ohio — The president of AFSCME Ohio Council 8 accused Cuyahoga County leaders Thursday of firing unionized medical staff at the county jails without due process and of unfair labor practices.

John Lyall made the accusations in a letter to County Council President Dan Brady, responding to a letter Brady sent to another union leader Wednesday regarding nurses at the jails.

Lyall alleges that the county failed to bargain solely with AFSCME, which represents some nurses at the jails, because Brady had written David Wondolowski, executive secretary at the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, about the transition away from a fully-unionized jail medical staff.

Brady disputed the notion that unfair labor practices occurred because the administration of County Executive Armond Budish negotiates union contracts, not County Council. Brady also said that providing information, as he did with Wondolowski, does not constitute a negotiation.

Lyall in his letter accused Brady of failing to share the information he sent to Wondolowski with AFSCME. An email obtained through a public records request shows that Brady sent the same information to Lyall on Thursday morning.

Lyall also accused the county of firing medical staff without due process, though nurses have not been fired to date.

Both labor leaders have raised concerns with the fact that County Council and Budish approved a contract to replace the county’s unionized jail medical staff with a combination of unionized and non-unionized staff from MetroHealth System.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees , announced plans to protest the move by picketing April 28 outside the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party’s annual dinner in Cleveland. That would likely cost the dinner its headline speaker, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, whose spokeswoman said Wednesday that Harris would not cross a union picket line.

The county continues to employ unionized nurses at the county jails during the transition to an all-MetroHealth staff.

Brady reported in his Wednesday letter that 37 of the 49 county health-care workers who applied for new MetroHealth jail positions have been offered jobs at MetroHealth.

For those not offered jobs by MetroHealth, or for those who declined those offers, the county will offer them jobs elsewhere in the county, spokeswoman Eliza Wing said Thursday. If workers don’t take up those options, the county will work with a placement service to help them find different jobs, Wing said.

All workers, whether they go to MetroHealth, other county departments, or leave altogether, will receive what Brady described as a “significant” retention and severance package.

The transitional contract that would include that package is in the works. One jail nurse union has already approved it, but AFSCME has not, Wing said. Both contracts are subject to approval by County Council.

“Our focus all along has been to bring quality health care to the jails through this marriage with our partner, the county public hospital,” Brady said. “And we are relentless in trying to make sure that nobody is left behind that is an employee of Cuyahoga County.”