CENTER CITY, Minn. — Some 170 workers in Chisago County Health and Human Services and its government center have been on strike since May in a fight over wages and health insurance.
“The county healthcare plan has a family deductible of $10,000 yearly,” Amy Perusse, a business agent for Teamsters Local 320, told the Militant on the picket line June 30. “We want to switch to the Teamsters plan, where the deductible is $1,500. And we want the county to contribute their share to this plan.”
The union provides strike pay and has set up a Strike and Defense Fund to help workers with expenses. Other Teamster locals and unions, including the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, have contributed.
“I’m from a union family,” Ashley Klein, who has worked for the county’s Health and Human Services division for 10 years, told the Militant. “My father was a meat cutter, my mother a nurse. My companion is in the Carpenters union. I think unions are important to defend the rights of workers. I had thought of quitting, but I’m proud of my co-workers and can’t leave them until we win what we deserve.
“And with our strike, I have become more interested in seeing what workers around the country are going through,” she said. Klein has been following the Cargill lockout of Teamster packinghouse workers in Fort Morgan, Colorado.
This is one of the longest public workers strikes ever in Minnesota, but Klein said most strikers are hanging tough, less than 20 have crossed the picket line.
The union reported that in a vote on the county’s latest proposal June 30, “there was a 98% rejection by our sisters and brothers in Chisago County Health and Human Services and a unanimous rejection by the Chisago County Government Center Professionals.”
Chase Burnham, the county administrator heading up their negotiating committee, didn’t respond to the Militant’s request for a statement