Chisago County workers continue long strike

Teamsters Local 320 members who work for Chisago County have been on strike since May 1. On Saturday, that means workers have been striking for 43 days.

Some county employees have quit their jobs since negotiations began.

“They just said, ‘you know, what, I don’t want to work for an employer that’s treating people like this, and they just quit,’” said Amy Perusse, the local’s business agent.

The county’s striking employees are divided into two groups: health and human services workers and government center professionals, Chisago County administrator Chase Burnham said. Another unit represented by the Teamsters, Highway Engineering Techs, are not on strike, Burnham said.

The county employs about 415 people, and about 70 percent continue to work and are not part of the strike, Burnham said. About 170 people are striking from the two units.

Negotiations began in October 2025, Burnham said. The union called for mediation before the strike in March. The state’s Bureau of Mediation Services is involved in the process, he added.

Sticking points

Wages were originally the main focus.

“Then it became healthcare, then it became wages, then it became working conditions,” Burnham said. “The ball feels moving a little bit, so the county continues to be engaged and involved repeatedly with the process.”

For Local 320, health insurance contributions are a priority, Perusse said.

Language in the current contract allows Chisago County officials to contribute those funds to the less costly Teamster Health Plan.

“We want that difference to go into an individual HRA, health reimbursement account, for each of our members and the county wants to save that money for themselves,” Perusse said.

Burnham said that the county also contributes to an HSA.

“Their proposed health care plan is lower in deductible but has higher out-of-pockets because it has two deductibles, a drug deductible and a health care deductible,” he said.

County services continue

Burnham said Chisago County has hired remote contract workers to help with health and human services work.

“We prioritize life and safety needs above all else,” Burnham said. “We still have approximately about 40 staff that are working in health and human services, so Teamsters represents 170 but not all 170 are striking, so there is still active services every day that are happening.”

There are also county employees such as supervisors who “can’t take on the workload,” Perusse said.

“Our folks are getting calls from people from other communities that they regularly interact with, saying that work is not getting done,” she said.

Members who are social workers “have had clients come find them on the strike line and say, ‘Hey, can I get you back to work because I need help?’” Perusse said.

“It’s going to hurt the community. So we need to get people back to work,” she said.

Negotiations stall

Some members have attended the last two county board meetings and addressed officials by telling them who they are and what work they do for the county, Perusse said. They’ve also said they want to get back to work.

“The county board responded by scrutinizing and chastising our members,” she said. “They were met with some very harsh words from the county.”

The last time both sides met was May 23, Burnham and Perusse said. The meeting started at 9 a.m. on May 22 and ended at 3:30 a.m., Perusse said. She said the county team walked out.

“They got up and left when we thought we were making progress,” Perusse said. “Makes it difficult to deal with any(one) who gets up and leaves the table and then publicly says ‘we’re willing to meet any time. You just told us you were done.’”

Burnham said the county has sent the Teamsters two proposals since then that “were outright rejected.”

The length of the strike is long for public sector strikes in Minnesota.

The strike will soon surpass one of the longer strikes in recent history was 45 days in 2023, when Hastings Public Schools food service workers were on strike.

The longest public sector strike ended in 1977, when city workers in Park Rapids went on strike for 240 days, according to a spokesman for the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services.