[B]URLINGTON – On the last scheduled day of negotiations, representatives of University of Vermont Medical Center and its 1,800-member nurses union said they still had not reached agreement on a new contract.
Barbs exchanged on Friday as the nurses twice rallied behind their cause. But both sides indicated a willingness to keep talking before the current deal expires on July 9.
“We are totally committed to reaching a fair agreement,” said Eileen Whalen, the hospital’s president and chief operating officer.
The nurses are represented by the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals. The union also represents technical professionals at UVM Medical Center, but that’s under a separate contract.
Contract talks between nurses and hospital leaders began in March.
While negotiators said there was more progress on Friday than there had been in prior sessions, the two parties still disagree on key issues like wages and staffing.
As talks came to a close, 200 nurses filled into a Larner Center lecture hall, chanting, “Safe staffing saves lives,” to join 300 of their members in negotiations.
Nurses have said staffing is a big problem as they struggle to deal with an expanding and more acute patient population.
In order to fill more vacancies, the union says the hospital needs to increase base salaries. The vacancies, according to urology nurse Anna Westerville, are causing the nurses to consistently work 50 to 60 hours per week.
Westerville said those hours are causing mental distress and a decrease in the quality of patient care.
“We are being told that we are not worth it,” she said.
Whalen, who also is trained as a registered nurse, disagreed with the union’s characterization.
“Our nursing turnover is lower than the national average for academic hospitals,” Whalen said. “Our vacancy rate is in line with every other Vermont hospital and similar organizations nationally.”
In an interview, Whalen also said the hospital had hired more than 300 registered nurses and more than 400 support staff since October 2016. “About 120 of them were new positions,” she said.
The union also has called for “fair and competitive wages.” Whalen responded by saying the hospital relies on a “robust market analysis” in setting salaries, and she said administrators had offered an increase to advanced practice registered nurses in order to address a disparity discovered in that analysis.
Nevertheless, the union and hospital remain far apart on compensation issues.
It’s unclear when the two sides will sit down again. As talks were winding down Friday afternoon, Whalen said it’s up to the union to communicate about “what the next steps are in terms of continuing the dialog.”
Union members said they will vote on the administration’s proposal and decide how to proceed.
Past contract negotiations have involved a mediator, though Whalen said the union has thus far not agreed to allow that in the current talks. A union spokesperson said that’s only because nurses wanted to “continue talking directly with the management team,” and she said the union is open to mediation in future sessions.
Throughout the process, UVM nurses have tried to keep contract negotiations in the public eye by holding rallies that attracted political support.
Last month, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., joined 500 nurses who rallied to promote their priorities.
The union held a press conference Friday morning, where American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten gave a speech accusing the hospital administration of acting like the Trump administration instead of a Vermont-based administration.
Attendees at Friday’s rally also included state Sen. Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate James Ehlers.
Sarah Ferguson, a registered nurse who spoke Friday, said UVM nurses had filed 20 unfair labor practice complaints regarding a number of incidents that the nursing staff allege happened during negotiations.
The complaints include monitoring of union activities and forcing employees to remove union pins from their clothing.
Whalen said she had no knowledge of unfair labor practice allegations and could not comment on those issues. But she countered that some nurses have complained of feeling intimidated by their union.
“These are very tough, emotional times,” Whalen said.
