Jordan Deffenbaugh, a labor representative with American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 65 based in Sioux Falls, S.D., joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss a situation unfolding in Union County that he said is clear evidence of why workers need union contracts with just cause protections.
Two Union County sheriff's deputies, both members of a newly formed bargaining unit still in the middle of their first contract negotiations, were fired by the new Union County Sheriff three weeks after he won his election. Their supposed offense: having a yard sign supporting the other candidate on their property.
Deffenbaugh described Council 65’s active response campaign involving a petition, planned rallies, appeals to the governor and attorney general and an unfair labor practice charge. The incident is already galvanizing interest in union organizing across Southeast South Dakota and pushing the reactivation of the Sioux Falls Regional Labor Federation.
- Two Union County sheriff's deputies who served on their bargaining unit's negotiating committee were fired by the Sheriff on June 23, approximately three weeks after the sheriff won his election. The termination letter cited the state’s at-will law as justification and offered no cause for the firings. Deffenbaugh said the timing, just weeks after bargaining sessions where union lawyers argued against including the language in the contract, makes the situation a near-perfect illustration of exactly why just cause protections are necessary.
- Deffenbaugh described a pattern of conduct concerns in Union County that preceded the deputy firings, including a lawsuit filed by a former 911 director who alleged she was terminated after the sheriff learned she had married her wife. Additional stories from Union County residents have been coming in since the case went public and he said he expects more to come to light as the campaign develops.
- With union density in South Dakota at approximately 2.7 percent, Deffenbaugh said the Union County situation is already generating interest in organizing among workers who had not previously considered it. It is also helping restart the Sioux Falls Regional Labor Federation, he said. The deputy firings, while unjust, landed on a silver platter as a grievance because of how clearly they illustrate the need for just cause protections. Deffenbough believes the incident could be the beginning of a broader organizing surge in Southeast South Dakota.
A New Labor Rep in a Challenging State
Jordan Deffenbaugh is not a career union man. He grew up in South Dakota, in a fifth-generation dairy-farming family in the western part of the state. His father was a home builder in Sioux Falls. After years of doing community advocacy work focused on housing and a failed campaign for a seat on the Sioux Falls City Council, he was approached by his mail carrier, who asked if he had ever considered becoming a labor rep. Deffenbaugh applied, got the job and started with AFSCME Council 65 in June 2025.
He covers approximately 13 jurisdictions across East River South Dakota, including the bargaining unit that just became the center of one of the most straightforward illustrations of why workers need union contracts he has encountered in his first year.
Union County: A Firing That Tells the Whole Story
The deputies in the Union County Sheriff's Office organized in November 2025. They were still in their first contract negotiations when the Sheriff, who had won his election just three weeks earlier, terminated two of the deputies on June 23. The termination letter cited South Dakota's at-will employment law as authorization for the terminations and offered no specific cause.
Deffenbaugh said the reason that emerged publicly is that the two deputies had yard signs on their property supporting the sheriff's opponent. They did not campaign at the office, hold signs on the road or do anything beyond exercising political speech as private citizens on their own land. Three weeks after their candidate lost, they were fired.
Just weeks before the terminations, Deffenbaugh said the county's lawyer was sitting across the bargaining table from the union reps. arguing that the contract did not need just cause language because South Dakota is an at-will state. That conversation, followed by the firings, made the case for just cause protections more directly than any argument Deffenbaugh could have constructed.
A Pattern Broader Than the Deputies
Deffenbaugh said the firings are not the first time concerns have surfaced about the Sheriff’s conduct in Union County. A former 911 director filed a lawsuit alleging she was terminated after the sheriff learned she had married her wife, with reasons added after the fact. Since news of the terminated deputies went public, Deffenbaugh said he has been receiving calls from Union County residents describing additional situations he is not yet ready to discuss publicly, but said the story is becoming a deeper well than it first appeared.
The Response Campaign
AFSCME Council 65 is not waiting for the situation to resolve itself. Deffenbaugh said the union’s response includes a petition drive, planned rallies at the county commission, appeals to the governor and attorney general of South Dakota, the two officials with authority to hold the sheriff accountable, and an unfair labor practice charge. He does not expect the sheriff or the county to back down easily, but believes the campaign is built for a sustained fight rather than a quick resolution. He also described a successful precedent from earlier in his tenure: when the city of Vermilion tried to terminate a worker for living slightly outside an on-call radius, a media blitz and city council mobilization led to the termination being dropped entirely.
Union County and the Organizing Surge
Deffenbaugh said one unexpected effect of the Union County case is that it is sparking organizing conversations across his jurisdiction and beyond. Workers who had not previously considered joining a union are approaching him with questions about the process. He is explaining what it means to organize, whether their workplace structure qualifies and how to build toward a worker majority. He said he would not be surprised if the Union County situation becomes the starting point for a broader surge in Southeast South Dakota.
He is also part of the effort to reactivate the Sioux Falls Regional Labor Federation, drawing on archives from the past century of organized labor in the region. Those earlier organizations, he said, had the infrastructure, committee structure and redundancies needed to activate quickly when a situation demanded it. Building that capacity will require several years of work, he said.
South Dakota's union density is approximately 2.7 percent, compared to roughly 35 percent nationally during the peak years of the 1950s. Deffenbaugh said there is a lot of ground to recover and situations like Union County are exactly the kind of situation that helps workers understand what union membership actually means for their daily working lives.
More information on AFSCME Council 65 is available at afscme65.org.
Go Behind the Scenes of the Labor Movement
Every victory at the bargaining table starts with workers standing together. From the shop floor to the statehouse, hear how activists are fighting for better wages, safer conditions and a stronger future. Subscribe to the America's Work Force Union Podcast to get the latest interviews with the leaders and organizers building worker power across America.
America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.
America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.
