BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Nurses at the UVM Medical Center announced Tuesday they will go on strike for five days starting Friday, July 12, unless the reach a contract deal in the coming days.
The nurses last week voted to authorize a strike if the two sides could not agree in the two bargaining sessions that remain before their contract expires on July 9. Nurses say they want a 31 percent wage increase over three years while UVM is offering a 20 percent increase.
Hospital officials on Tuesday said they are preparing for a strike, including the estimated $15 million it would take to pay for 500 traveling nurses. “The offer we have on the table right now is the offer that makes sense with everything we’re trying to balance right now — control costs for Vermonters, control costs at the medical center, and make sure we have dollars for everything here,” said UVMMC President Steven Leffler.
Union officials did not respond to our requests for an interview, but in a statement Tuesday, Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals president Deb Snell said a strike is the worst-case scenario. “If our nurses continue to be ignored on our concerns and brushed off at the bargaining table, we will do what we have to for the long term sustainability of our workforce and the health of our community, period,” she said.
According to data submitted to state regulators, nearly a quarter of UVM’s $2 billion budget goes toward administrative costs, including IT, managers, directors, and executive salaries. Staff wages make up 60 percent.
Leffler says cutting from the top won’t provide savings. “It’s actually quite low. We don’t believe there are savings there that could be applied to this contract,” he said.
Owen Foster, chair of the Green Mountain Care Board — which regulates hospital budgets — wouldn’t comment on the ongoing negotiations but says expenses for traveling nurses show up in commercial insurance rate requests paid for by Vermonters or their employers. “There are a number of mechanisms through which these costs filter down to Vermonters,” he said.
But Foster says the state’s ongoing demographics and associated workforce problems are contributing to the ongoing nursing shortage and the rising cost of health care makes the stakes even higher. “Those nurses are part of those demographics that are aging out of the workforce and so it’s incredibly important that we retain the nurses we have and replace them with an adequate number of other nurses. I think the message here is we need to plan for these situations so that patient care is not interrupted,” he said.
There are two more bargaining sessions — Wednesday and on July 8th. If both sides can’t reach a deal, the strike would begin next Friday.
The nurses at Vermont’s largest hospital last went on strike six years ago for two days.
The hospital says they’ll reschedule certain elective procedures if needed. If your care will be impacted, the hospital says it will contact you.