This story was originally published by The Imprint, a national nonprofit news outlet covering child welfare and youth justice. Sign up for The Imprint’s free newsletters here.
Human services staff in east-central Minnesota are fast approaching their third month on strike, after failing to reach a labor agreement with Chisago County. As a result, temporary workers and managers filling in for line staff are now serving foster youth, parents and others served by the county’s Health and Human Services Department.
Both sides acknowledge the effects on the 38 foster youth and their parents and caregivers served by the department.
“I thought we were going to be out there for just a couple days, and I was still super worried about my clients,” said Child Protection Social Worker Savanna Ensrud. “It’s been hard on the children and the families. Not saying that our supervisors aren’t doing the best they can, but it’s just not the same.”
County Administrator Chase Burnham said the temporary coverage is “not perfect — far from it. But they are working extremely hard to provide the services to our most vulnerable.”
Negotiations for health and human services workers and other county staff represented by Teamsters Local 320 began in the fall, two months before their contracts expired, representatives of both sides said. After failing to reach an agreement on annual wage increases over the next two years as well as health insurance benefits, the union voted to strike starting May 1.
At the bargaining table, Burnham said the union’s demands for pay and health care have been inconsistent. Union leadership says the county has been inflexible during negotiations and unwilling to seek mutually agreed-upon solutions.
More than 120 workers are on strike. Roughly 90 of them handle CPS cases or help county residents access Medicaid, food stamps and mental health resources. Maintenance staff, administrative workers and building inspectors are also striking.
Ensrud said better healthcare and wage benefits for workers would ultimately help the families they serve: When caseworkers in these high-stress jobs struggle to afford things like therapy or medications, it’s difficult to be fully present with clients, she said, noting that costly premiums on her employer-sponsored health insurance plan have made her reluctant to go to the doctor.
Annual pay for county workers hovers around $75,000, though salaries vary, according to a public database of government pay.
I thought we were going to be out there for just a couple days, and I was still super worried about my clients. It’s been hard on the children and the families.
Child Protection Social Worker Savanna Ensrud
On the job, Ensrud said, she has to maintain her own health as she navigates everything from separating mothers and crying children to explaining the health hazards of living in homes full of pet feces.
Ensrud said she understands from personal experience the importance of child protection work and having sympathy for struggling parents. Memories of her early childhood are blurred now, she said, but she remembers crying in the arms of a social worker about whether her mother, who struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse, would be taken to jail.
It takes time for caseworkers to build the trust needed for such delicate situations, she said, and when workers leave the job under normal circumstances, parents and children are “delicately” transitioned to new staff.
But when the strike began in May, there was no such transition — and that has caused hardship, both sides say.
Health and Human Services Director Vickie Goulette said five supervisors and 10 temporary staff are now handling child protection work. She has pitched in to fill the gaps left by the striking workers, helping with CPS investigations and department accounting work and fielding questions from foster parents.
Some of these youth and foster parents had established relationships with their workers. They respected them, they trusted them, and then they just went away. And that tends to happen for these youth that are in the child welfare system: Adults just go away.
Health and Human Services Director Vickie Goulette
She said she’s had to try to build trust with families she didn’t expect to be directly working with when she started the job on May 1.
“Some of these youth and foster parents had established relationships with their workers. They respected them, they trusted them, and then they just went away. And that tends to happen for these youth that are in the child welfare system: Adults just go away,” Goulette said. “I’ve had to step in and try to form a relationship, as are others who are filling in the gaps. And to me that’s heartbreaking.”
The work stoppage is the longest county worker’s strike in state history, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation. In 1981, Chisago County workers, including welfare department staff, remained on strike for 34 days.
Burnham said he’s not sure what could end this current strike, but the county is preparing for it to continue — in part by hiring temporary workers from other counties. No mediation date has been announced since July 9, when bargaining talks broke down after a few hours.
Teresa Strand, a social worker in the adult mental health field, said while she’s been on the picket line outside the Chisago County Government Building, she’s seen two of her clients approach the county building for help. She said they supported the strikers.
“But of course, they’re also showing up here because they’re not getting what they need,” she added. “The county had agreed to pay a bill for one of my clients through the end of the year, and the bill isn’t getting paid, and that’s why he was showing up.”
