[T]he University of Vermont Medical Center told its nurses union that the hospital’s offer of a 15 percent base salary raise over three years is the hospital’s “last, best and final offer” during negotiations on Thursday.
The union had come to the negotiating table with an offer of 20 percent, down from the 22 percent it proposed last time the two sides met nearly a month ago. UVM management raised its offer to 15 percent in mid-August.
The Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals and the hospital administration have been negotiating since March but were not able to come to an agreement before the previous contract expired July 9.
“As is true in any negotiation, there comes a time when you have to state your final position, and that time has come,” hospital president Eileen Whalen said in a statement Thursday evening.
“To move forward, today we issued a fair and competitive last, best and final offer to the union in a good faith effort to reach an agreement,” she added. “It does not mean we are ‘imposing a contract.’ We will continue to meet with the union as required by national labor law.”
Union nurses went on a 48-hour strike on July 12, spreading out across the Burlington area with red shirts and picket signs calling attention to what they say is an understaffed hospital with underpaid and overworked nurses.
The hospital contends that its vacancy rates are standard and its offer of a 15 percent raise over three years is “fair, competitive and consistent with our market-based compensation philosophy.”
Deb Snell, the president of AFT Vermont and a UVM Medical Center nurse, said Thursday the nurses felt disrespected by the hospital’s latest proposal.
“The hospital thinks that we’re just going to fold, and we are not,” she said. “We know what we’re worth, we know what we need to make here to keep nurses here.”
The union represents around 1,800 licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and nurse practitioners at UVM Medical Center.
Molly Wallner, the union’s main negotiator, said the union had lowered its wage demands in its proposal and gave up some other requests in hopes of moving toward a deal. But the hospital hadn’t budged since mid-August, she said.
“We’re frustrated and disheartened that the hospital doesn’t seem to be taking our moves seriously,” she said.
The hospital has repeatedly asked the union to bring its offer to a vote of its members, but the union said it has no plans to do so.
Wallner said the hospital is pushing the vote because it believes a majority of nurses would support the current contract offer. But the bargaining committee has been keeping a close pulse on their membership, she said, and wants to hold a vote when they are confident they have a good contract.
Some nurses are fatigued from almost six months of contract talks, Wallner said, but there are still major differences between what the union is seeking and what the hospital is offering. She said nurses deserve a contract that would pass emphatically, not in a 51 to 49 vote.
“We’re talking like 80 percent yes, or 90 percent yes,” she said. “We want a contract that truly represents the majority of nurses, not just barely the majority.”
The nurses are also carrying out a campaign expressing no confidence in Whalen and the hospital’s CEO, John Brumsted. The nurses have focused their frustration on filings that show Brumsted and Whalen together made more than $3 million in 2016.
The medical center administration has defended the salaries — which are the highest for hospital executives in the state — as being on par with the competition, and necessary to hire top talent.
The union has collected around 5,000 signatures from both nurses and members of the community, Wallner said, and plan to bring them to the board of trustees meeting on Sept. 20.
Both Snell and Wallner said the nurses would consider another strike but need to discuss the issue with their membership before making any decisions.
