[B]URLINGTON — The state’s largest health care union is set to begin contract negotiations with the state’s largest health care provider.
The Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, which represents 1,800 nurses and 300 technical professionals employed by the UVM Medical Center, will begin negotiating a new three-year contract with the medical center on Thursday.
Their current contract expires on July 9 of this year.
At a press conference in front of the medical center Wednesday, union members said their priorities in negotiations would be fair wages, safe staffing and support for professional development.
When asked if the union would go as far as to strike, Sharon Schroeder, VFNHP spokeswoman, said the union is ready to work with the hospital management but would do “whatever it takes” to ensure their priorities are met.
The nursing union expressed support at the press conference for improved pay for the hospital’s support staff, specifically that the support staff be paid $15 an hour, the amount under consideration by the current Legislature for a new statewide minimum wage.
Support staff positions include nursing assistants and the hospital’s technical staff. They are not members of the nursing union, and they are not taking part in the upcoming negotiations. Nurses employed by the UVM Medical Center make substantially more than $15 an hour.
In 2016, the hospital’s support staff sought to join the nursing union, saying at the time that they were overworked and underpaid. They also sought a $15 an hour wage minimum.
The unionization attempt was unsuccessful. Schroeder said she did not recall exactly why it failed, but that it had to do with timing and insufficient support.
Schroeder told the press conference that increasing staff support pay would improve retention of the staff, and would result in improvements to patient care. A better-compensated support staff would in turn improve the quality of nursing care, she said.
“Right now, we need to support our support staff,” Schroeder said. “We need to ensure they are given the dignity and respect they deserve.”
She was echoed by Julie MacMillan, the union’s lead negotiator. “It’s not just the right thing to do, it is necessary, ” MacMillian said.
A few lawmakers, including Rep. Rae Fields, D-Bennington, Rep. Betsy Dunn, D-Essex Junction, and Rep. George Till, D-Jericho, as well as Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman have rallied in support of the union.
“Vermont’s nurses are on the front lines of providing high quality and needed health care to our families,” Fields told a meeting of the Working Vermont Caucus at the Statehouse Wednesday.
Kate FitzPatrick, chief nursing officer at the UVM Medical Center, said the negotiations are an opportunity for conversation where each voice will be heard.
“Our nurses are a key reason the UVM Medical Center consistently ranks among the top academic medical centers in the country for quality of care,” she said in a written statement Wednesday.
CORRECTION: The nurse’s contract expiration date in the original version of the story was incorrect. The contract expires July 9.
