Lorain County employees press commissioners to return to bargaining as JFS strike disrupts services

Dozens of county employees and community members pressed the Lorain County Board of Commissioners on March 27 to return to contract negotiations with Jobs and Family Services (JFS) workers and to provide retroactive pay, saying service disruptions have already harmed clients.

"We, the employees of Lorain County Children Services, respectfully submit this petition to express our deep concern and disappointment regarding the ongoing contract negotiations and the lack of fair retroactive compensation," read Jahaira Yimenez, who identified herself as representing Lorain County Children Services and presented a signed petition demanding a fair contract and retro pay.

Speakers who identified themselves as JFS workers described mounting service delays and staffing losses. "Since February 18th JFS has lost three employees ... and add them to the 90 people that have already left JFS in the last five years," union supporter Brittany Eber told commissioners, saying clients report medical authorizations and SNAP allotments are not being processed correctly.

Jean Smith, a long-term care Medicaid eligibility specialist, said the unit that handles long-term care serves multiple high-complexity caseloads and that vacancies make timely processing medically consequential. "Our area holds seven caseloads with approximately 600 cases each," Smith said, explaining state rules that require trained incumbents for many long-term-care eligibility roles and why backlogs cannot be fixed quickly.

Workers described morale and pay problems they say drove turnover. Mary Jo Pigman, a former JFS employee, contrasted prior county pay with positions she accepted elsewhere: after eight years at JFS she said she made roughly $20.17 an hour, and later secured $24.58 an hour with the state. "It makes me sad that my friends are making a lot less," Pigman said.

Multiple speakers criticized apparent county messaging that services were running normally. Shauna Hatfield said information posted to the county commission page claimed JFS was "open and efficient," but clients reported locked doors, long hold times and halted benefits processing. Hatfield recounted a case in which a 25-year-old SSI recipient lost SNAP and could not reliably reach staff to resolve the issue.

Several commenters urged commissioners to re-enter bargaining and offered a mix of requests: immediate return-to-work with negotiated terms, fair retroactive pay, and higher incumbent wages to stem turnover. "Going back to the bargaining table isn't a sign of weakness. It's a sign of leadership," Yamaira Bustillos said.

Board members recorded routine votes earlier in the agenda and had convened an executive session before returning to open session; some commenters criticized the timing of that closed session, saying they were called to speak about contract matters the board had already discussed behind closed doors. Otis Lovejoy said he was "curious" why the executive session did not yield public information about contract progress and urged transparency and compassion for employees.

The board did not announce any new settlement or agreement during the meeting. Commissioners approved a series of routine resolutions and then moved on to other agenda items and votes; public comment closed without a stated follow-up timeline. The meeting adjourned after the public comment period.

Next steps: commissioners did not vote on a new contract at the meeting and did not set a public date for resumed bargaining; employees and union representatives asked the board to meet them at the table to avert continuing service disruptions.