Social workers demand more support from community in ongoing strike
by Grace Moody, For The Miami Student
48 social workers in Butler County have been participating in a strike outside the Government Services Center in downtown Hamilton. Workers are angry about the lack of support they receive from the community. While negotiation about the issue has been going on for more than a year, the strike began Aug. 18.
Retired Miami University English professor Don Daiker supports the workers and has participated in rallying. Daiker said he believes social workers perform important, dangerous work and does not think the commissioners recognize the difficulty of their work and treat them with enough respect.
"The commissioners are making twice as much money for a half-time job as the workers do for a full-time job," Daiker said. "So there's a basic question of fairness and justice here."
President of the Butler County Children Services Independent Union (BCCSIU) and Chief Spokesperson for the striking workers Rebecca Palmer is organizing the rallying and said she believes a contract needs to be negotiated.
Palmer is concerned for the safety of the children and families in Butler County. Due to the loss of over half of the agency's social workers since 2011, fewer social workers remain in Butler County. The remaining workers now have high caseloads with no significant increase in pay. She said she believes this will negatively affect the community due to the quality of services provided to families.
"Child abuse and neglect will not go away, but how we address it as a county will be what changes and improves our community," Palmer said in a Sept. 1 statement sent out by the Union detailing the fiscal negotiations between the Union and the commissioners.
Miami University sophomore Jonathan Sander, is a resident of Fairfield Township in Butler County. Sander, a commuter student, has noticed talk about the strike spreading around the community. He said he supports the social workers in their strike, as he said he believes they deserve more pay.
"It's an issue of interests," Sander said. "Everybody wants to get paid more and in this case they're not getting paid enough."
William J. Gracie, Jr., a resident of Oxford, is aware of the demanding and difficult nature of social worker's duties and thinks without social workers, families in Butler County would have a significantly worse quality of life.
"I ask the county commissioners to consider that the work action taken by BCCSIU is not about the union; it is about families and children in Butler County," Gracie said. "When we mistreat those whose work many of us would not like to do ourselves, we diminish the quality of life for all of us."
The Butler County Commissioner could not be reached for comment.