BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Unionized nurses at the UVM Medical Center in Burlington say they are voting on a potential strike if the hospital administration cannot meet their contract pay demands.
It’s been six years since nurses at Vermont’s largest hospital hit the picket line, and now they’re threatening to do it again.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that, but if we’re backed into a corner, we may have to,” said Deb Snell, president of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals. She says “the corner” in this case is a cap on raises the union is fighting against.
“The amount of money that the nurses are asking for in the first year of their demand for the new contract is $80 million. That’s more than the entire amount of new money that we got last year,” said UVMMC president Dr. Steve Leffler. He says the hospital can’t afford the 46% wage increase over the next four years the union is proposing, especially after the 20% increase the union received from 2020 to 2022.
Reporter Laura Ullman: They’ve raised your salary significantly over the past few years, why is it not enough?
Deb Snell: Because nurses are in high demand. It’s supply and demand.
The ongoing low supply of local nurses increases the hospital’s reliance on travel nurses, which are expensive. However, the need to staff the hospital competes with its ability to recruit and maintain local nurses at what the union says are competitive salaries.
“Their current ask could increase commercial and premium costs, commercial health insurance premiums, for Vermonters by 10% per year,” Leffler said. That comes on top of Vermont’s leading health insurance carriers asking regulators for double-digit rate increases.
With only four bargaining sessions scheduled, nurses continue to turn in their final ballots to approve a strike.
“We would bring in nurses from other areas, hire them to work those days. All of our leaders would be here, our nurse manager and so on would be there. And we delivered safe, high-quality care six years ago. I really hope it doesn’t come to that again,” Leffler said.
The vote for the strike is expected to end on Sunday. The nurses and the administration will be back at the bargaining table Wednesday.