AFSCME members who work at Ramsey County held a contract rally outside the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul Oct. 29.
Four local unions representing over 2,000 Ramsey County employees are holding firm to their key demands – dignified wages, safe and adequate staffing, and respect on the job – as bargaining with the county inches closer to their contracts’ Dec. 31 expiration date.
Members of AFSCME Locals 8, 151, 707 and 1935 – librarians, social workers, child protection workers, parks employees and workers in scores of other job classifications – were also holding firm to their solidarity, union members said during a rally outside the Ramsey County Courthouse as talks entered a third month.
“The employer is still using the same old playbook of stalling, sewing division amongst the locals and attempting to erode our union legacy rights like seniority, the freedom to determine when we take vacation or receiving extra payments for working undesirable shifts,” Local 8 President Mario Lee, an animal control officer, said Oct. 29.
Rather than asking their employees for takebacks at the bargaining table, county administrators should be engaging their unions in meaningful discussions about how to address serious staffing shortfalls plaguing several county agencies, Lee and other union leaders said.
Several media reports in the last year have exposed the impact short staffing has had on county services. An October 2024 report by KSTP-TV found that the county’s Medical Assistance program had a backlog applications for benefit renewal, with more than 500 applicants waiting over 60 days.
Peggy Bloomstrand, a social worker and president of Local 151, said the county’s service delays are not isolated to Medical Assistance.
“Children at risk of abuse and neglect are not getting the services they need because our child protection workers are overwhelmed with high caseload sizes,” Bloomstrand said. “Support staff are working overtime to process cases…
“And it’s not because of the workforce,” she said. “It’s because Ramsey County has decided to eliminate positions and add top management that don’t work with clients or residents.”
“You have been asked countless times, consistently, every day to do more with less,” AFSCME Council 5 Executive Director Bart Andersen told county workers. “I’m sorry, but more with less is simply unsustainable.
“Your employers should be coming to the table proposing respectful wages, affordable health care, workplace safety and protections.”
Members of the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners, in voting to raise their own salaries by 3 to 5% earlier in 2024, cited the need to attract quality candidates – a fact not lost on union members, who say their pay has fallen by 13.5% over the last four years when adjusted for inflation.
According to an AFSCME payroll analysis, Ramsey County frontline workers’ wages are the 65th percentile in comparisons with their peers. Union members say the county needs to offer better compensation to recruit and retain staff in many positions, especially given the cost of living in the area and the scope of their work.
“We want a contract that aligns with the work we do and enables us to support our families,” Bloomstrand said. “We want more staff so our workforce has the ability to serve residents of Ramsey County.”
Those residents are making their voices heard in the bargaining process, too.
After their Oct. 29 rally, union members delivered a petition with over 1,000 signatures to the County Board. County workers gathered many of the signatures outside county libraries and other facilities, engaging residents in conversations about their campaign for adequate staffing and respect on the job.
“Our members go above and beyond the work they do, and we’re asking Ramsey County to compensate our members fairly for the work they do,” Bloomstrand said. “Hire additional staff so our residents get the service they need, and provide safe staffing levels.”
Ramsey County residents can sign onto AFSCME members’ petition in support of their contract campaign here.
Union Advocate 