Northampton Co. human services employees set to strike

EASTON, Pa. — The union representing many Northampton County Department of Human Services workers is set to strike after contract negotiations broke down, union representatives announced Tuesday.

For the last nine months, Service Employees International Union Local 668 has been locked in negotiations with the county over new contracts for workers in Children, Youth and Families, Emergency Services, Referral and Information Services, and other key parts of the department.

The dispute centers on wages, said Kezzy Johnson, chief shop steward for SEIU and a placement specialist for the county. Low pay has led to high turnover and too many positions going unfilled, she said, which leaves the remaining employees overworked.

“It does cause some mental health strain. Because we have such a huge loss of staff, people are handling cases that would be distributed among three or four staff members,” she said.

As the shortage — which began with the COVID-19 pandemic — wears on, “people are losing hope that there's going to be any sort of change, and therefore they're just leaving the profession altogether,” Johnson said.

County Executive Lamont McClure said Tuesday that the county had not been notified of the union’s intent to strike and defended the county’s offer as a balance between employees’ and taxpayers’ interests.

“We like, admire and respect our Human Services employees very much, and that's why we've offered them [15% raises] over three years," enough to compete with other employers, McClure said. “We think this is a more-than-fair offer because the folks who pay the bills — the taxpayers — haven't gotten 15% over three years.”

Considering the acute impact a strike would have and the rich contract on the table, he said, “it's pretty clear that they should be on the job doing the job that they do so well.”

The union has not announced when a strike would begin.