Lake County Health Department employees form union with AFSCME

They help keep Lake County’s 700,000 residents healthy and safe, and now some 600 employees of the Lake County Health Department have announced that they are forming their union with AFSCME Council 31 so they can achieve safety and security for themselves.

County health department workers say they’re motivated to come together in their union to win better pay, reduce turnover, improve transparency and accountability from upper management, and seek greater job security in a time of uncertainty and threatened federal funding cuts.

“As LCHD employees, we deserve to have a voice. Joining AFSCME allows us to have the much-needed input we deserve,” said Erika Lavin, a group home counselor II and a member of the union organizing committee. “Organizing as a union affords us an opportunity to advocate for better wages, work conditions and benefits. This in turn will ultimately improve the quality of services we deliver.”

Employees of the health department perform a wide variety of work to make sure everyone in their community has access to the healthcare they need. At the Lake County Community Health Center, they’re nurses, dental hygienists and assistants, laboratory technicians, therapists, counselors, and more. Clerks, billing specialists, case managers and IT professionals, among others, work to make sure their public health operations run smoothly. 

They also work in the field, performing health and safety inspections at restaurants and monitoring water and air quality.

Council 31 already represents employees of the Lake County chief judge, circuit clerk, and coroner.