[T]he University of Vermont Medical Center and its nurses union have settled on a contract agreement, but union leaders say they are not happy and that the membership vote will likely be close.
The nurses were “absolutely not” completely satisfied by the contract, Molly Wallner, the union’s lead negotiator, said of the contract reached late Wednesday night.
“Because it had been such a long road, and because we have been working so long without a contract, the bargaining committee felt this was the best we could get right now,” she said.
The two sides agreed to a 16 percent average base salary increase over the next three years. The deal included retroactive pay increases to the first full pay period in September for ambulatory nurses.
“We believe this agreement provides meaningful wage increases and allows us to maintain our commitment to all employees and be responsible stewards of limited health care dollars,” the hospital said in a statement.
Photo by Mike Faher/VTDigger
Heading into Wednesday’s bargaining session, the medical center and the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals remained far apart on wages, the key disagreement in negotiations that lasted months, were often contentious and included a two-day strike.
The hospital presented the nurses with a 15 percent wage increase over three years as their “last, best and final” offer at the most recent negotiating session last week; the union was requesting 20 percent.
When the dust cleared around 10 p.m. Wednesday after seven hours of bargaining, each side had conceded a bit and they had an agreement that the union would bring a contract stipulating a 16 percent wage increase over three years to its membership.
The hospital made some some concessions during the months of bargaining but came nowhere close to the wage increases and staffing improvements the union was asking for.
After the hospital’s offer last week, Wallner said, the union decided to return to the table and try to get as much out of the hospital as possible before taking the contract to a vote. On Wednesday, it offered to accept an 18 percent wage increase.
“We felt the best thing we could do is just get a little something more out of them and don’t let them intimidate us into a vote but instead do it when we are ready and when we feel like our membership is ready for a vote,” she said.
Hospital president Eileen Whalen said that the hospital had issued the “last, best and final” offer after hearing from “quite a bit” of its nursing staff that they were ready to vote on a contract.
“The message we were sending was, this is our final offer, this is the package that we think we can deliver,” she said. “We’re happy to listen, and if there is something that we can come to an agreement on that does not require anything additional then we’re happy to do that.”
The hospital maintained that while the percentage of wage increases had grown from its “last, best, and final” offer, the money for those increases came from a union concession regarding differential pay.
“We heard from the union the nurses were more interested in putting the money into wages than differentials, so that’s where we went,” Whalen said. “We stayed, and honored, the last, best and final.”
Wallner contested Whalen’s claim that the money was just shifted around from differentials to wages in the new offer, saying that the hospital did add more funding to the contract.
“When we put money in a nurse’s base salary, it applies to everybody,” she said. “Versus when it’s specific to what shift you are working or what role in that shift are you working, it’s a lesser number of nurses that are getting that benefit. So that was a gain for us.”
The hospital and the union, which represents approximately 1,800 licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and nurse practitioners who work at the hospital, had been negotiating since March.
The nurses’ contract ran out July 9, and the nurses went on a 48-hour strike starting July 12.
The nurses have argued that low pay has led to staffing shortages, and have called attention to the fact that the hospital’s top executives, President Eileen Whalen and CEO John Brumsted, together made over $3 million in 2016.
The nurses will be able to vote in-person on Monday and Tuesday or via email on Wednesday and Thursday. The union plans to release the results at a Sept. 28 press conference.
Wallner said that she believed that voter turnout would be high and the vote would be close because not all the nurses are satisfied with the contract.
Barbara Jewett Noyes is one of the nurses “disappointed” in the contract. She said that while the hospital says it needs to pay its leadership the amount it does to attract top-notch talent, it is not willing to do the same for its nurses.
She said she would probably vote against the contract.
Union members attended Thursday’s meeting of the hospital’s board of trustees, and presented the board with approximately 6,000 signatures expressing no confidence in Whalen and Brumsted. Wallner criticized the board for its refusal to meet with the nurses union during its negotiations with the hospital.
A handful of hospital employees at the meeting expressed confidence in Whalen’s and Brumsted’s leadership.
The union plans on moving forward and pushing for legislative changes to address staffing issues it says are not satisfied by the contract.
Wallner said other “missing pieces” from the contract include nurse-to-patient ratios; having circulating nurses on critical care areas; ambulatory resource pools; and “lift teams” to help prevent injuries to nurses from heavy lifting and to encourage better movement for bedridden patients.
Whalen said the hospital wants to focus on rebuilding relationships and putting the tense negotiations behind them.
“We think if we can move ahead, that’s in the best interest of the community, it’s in the best interest of patients and families and certainly honors our nurses,” she said.
But Wallner said that many of the nurses feel that their relationship with the hospital is strained after months of tense bargaining.
“I would say most nurses right now feel the relationship is completely tainted,” she said. “It’s felt within the institution, it’s felt at the bedside, it’s felt in the hallways.”
