Bucks County union employees walk off job in 1-day noisy strike

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. – Unionized Bucks County employees walked off the job for a noisy strike in the county seat of Doylestown.

Striking union members lined a Bucks County street in the early afternoon urging motorists to sound their horns, all part of a one-day strike to force their county bosses to take notice. Bucks County employee Samantha Otto said, “If we are out here causing a ruckus, we can’t be out there in the community and at our jobs trying to help the people we really want to support.”

Some 300 members of SEIU Local 668 walked off the job Friday and gathered in front of the county administration building for a loud protest of speeches and chants. 500 employees are in the local but 200 of them, like 911 supervisors, are prohibited from striking.

Union leaders claim Bucks County Commissioners are trying to force a 19 percent cut in the funds paid into the unions’ health and welfare account for members’ health benefits and is offering a cost-of-living wage hike of just two percent.

Russ Taranto is at the bargaining table for the union. He said, “What they’re saying is hey, Bucks County workers, you’re invaluable, but you’re not invaluable enough to us to maintain your health, maintain your benefits you survive on and what you take care of you family with.”

The union claims it’s been negotiating with the county for nine months with no success, so after a strike vote earlier this summer, they walked.

Declining an interview, a county spokesperson wrote supervisors were filling in for striking staff and added: “The administration stands ready to continue negotiating to reach a fair salary and benefits package for our valued employees…”

Working with the elderly, children, and families and in prisons, the workers, earning about $70,000 a year, say they’ll strike again and longer, if provoked. County employee Cori Ruszkowski said, “We put our blood, sweat and tears on the line every day and make sacrifices for the families we support. But we cannot risk our benefits and welfare. We have to support our own families too.”