Oregon workers union joins fray on child welfare
Calls to improve Oregon's child welfare system grew louder Wednesday as one of the largest public employee unions released a report saying caseworkers are overburdened and the agency needs more staff.
The Service Employees International Union Local 503 represents about 2,000 child welfare staffers among its 55,000 Oregon workers, according to a union spokesman.
The report comes as top officials from the Department of Human Services are slated to present their budget plans to the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Services. DHS Director Clyde Saiki kicked off the series Tuesday, giving an overview of the agency’s status and briefly addressing its child welfare predicament.
“We have not invested enough in our staff and we need to fix that,” Saiki told lawmakers in a Capitol hearing room. He said the internal staffing level was around 83 percent for child welfare.
Read more: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2017/03/15/oregon-workers-union-joins-fray-child-welfare/99216268/