BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Negotiations between the nurses union and the UVM Medical Center are heating up ahead of a new bargaining period. Hundreds of nurses walked off the job back in 2018 to fight for better wages. On Wednesday, they rallied again with a similar message in hopes of avoiding another strike.
Calls to action echoed off UVM Medical Center Wednesday.
Eisha Lichtenstein is one of thousands of UVMMC union members demanding fair contracts. “We are so incredibly powerful when we work together,” she said.
Lichtenstein works in ER and says nurses are beaten down by poor work-life balance and low wages, despite a 20% raise in their last contract. “Every single member of the administration who’s representing the hospital bargaining across from us at the table can afford to buy a home in our community. Most of the people that I work with — who are not travelers — cannot,” she said.
Vermont needs thousands more nurses to fill current staffing shortages. UVMMC staff say the hospital’s solution is investing in traveling nurses over permanent staff and that the rotating door of new faces makes it hard to work as a team. “In those life and death moments, it lowers the tension of everybody in the room to have someone next to you that you know and can trust and can work with,” said Alex Dees, who also works in the ER.
Their current contract expires in July. Staff say this round of bargaining echoes those from years past, with added post-pandemic stressors. Nurses are asking the administration for a 15% wage increase in their first 2025 payroll period, among other quality-of-life demands. “Everything in the contract that we’re working towards is geared towards quality of life nurses, which in turn results in better outcomes for our patients,” Dees said.
“We would feel valued. We would feel like we can continue to live in this community. I’m from Vermont. I want to stay in Vermont,” Lichtenstein said.
Hospital administrators said in a statement: “We are committed to bargaining in good faith and reaching an agreement that builds on our ability to recruit and retain the caregivers who are vital to providing high-quality care to our patients.”
The hospital says the average base pay for a full-time nurse in a staff nurse role is $94,000. Union members were hoping to talk about pay raises at a negotiation session Wednesday afternoon.