Leaders of the support staff union at the University of Vermont Medical Center say that a majority of their members struggle to afford paying for housing and food on their current salaries, and that the hospital’s recent offer to increase wages does not do enough to change that.
More than 100 members of the new union group — which represents a wide range of job types, from licensed nursing assistants to schedulers to janitorial and cafeteria workers — braved stormy weather on Saturday afternoon to rally outside the hospital’s main campus in Burlington. The action underscored the union’s rejection of the hospital administration’s wage increase offer, presented at a bargaining session last Wednesday.
“I’m really proud to be a part of this team, and I won’t accept anything less than a livable wage for my colleagues. They work too hard,” said Heather Bauman, a phlebotomist on the union’s bargaining team, in an interview.
The union group represents more than 2,000 support staff at the hospital and affiliated clinics and joined the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals following a vote in January.
The same union, part of AFT Vermont, represents nurses and technical staff at UVM Medical Center. Several types of technical staff also joined the union for the first time this year. That group, totaling roughly 300 people, is also actively negotiating.
Union representatives have been holding bargaining sessions with hospital administrators for the past three months. Although both sides hope to reach an agreement before the hospital’s fiscal year starts in October, they remain far apart on a number of points, with wages looming largest currently.
“We’re committed to reaching agreement on a completed contract as quickly as possible and believe the wage proposal we made on Wednesday demonstrated that,” said Dr. Stephen Leffler, president and chief operating officer, in a written statement.
UVM Medical Center is “committed to a culture where our people feel heard, respected and supported,” and, as the region’s only Level One trauma center and academic medical center, “every single one of our employees is central to delivering exceptional patient care,” he said.
The hospital’s current offer includes an average immediate increase in wages of 15.3% with additional increases of 3% in the following two years, said medical center spokesperson Annie Mackin. That would increase wages by around $7,000 per person on average by the end of the contract period, she said.
The lowest-paid workers’ hourly wage would immediately increase from $15.60 to $18 an hour under the current proposal, though only 26 people are at that level, most of them trainees, Mackin said. The median wage after the increases would be $22.40 per hour, she said.
But that is simply not enough to stem the rapid turnover that has resulted in chronic understaffing, particularly among those earning the least already within the bargaining group, union representatives said.
“This hospital cannot run if we do not retain staff, and not retaining staff leads to patients not being safe, and our staff members not being safe,” said Jordan Bushway, another member of the negotiating team who works as a licensed nursing assistant in the hospital’s Mother-Baby Unit. It is rare that she works a shift there that is fully staffed, she said.
The way to retain staff is to pay better and provide a safer workplace, she said.
“We’re not asking for much,” Bushway said. “We’re asking to be able to, at the end of the day, be able to go home and not feel like you did the job of the five missing employees or coworkers that you’re supposed to have.”
As a result of frequent departures, Bauman is a senior member of the phlebotomy department after being there only 18 months, she said. There are frequently not enough staff members to complete the requested number of blood draws in the morning, she added, even working at a frenetic pace.
“The only way we get by, and we barely get by, is with travelers who they pay three times as much as they pay us,” Bauman said. “It’s so discouraging.”
In addition to wage increases, the support staff union is seeking commitments related to ensuring staff safety, such as providing slash-resistant jackets for mental health technicians and emergency department check-in staff, more paid time off, and allowances for union-related work, Bauman said.
Emergency department registrar John Tesoriero was one of a half-dozen union members and Burlington residents who spoke to the Burlington City Council at its July 24 meeting, urging the council to approve a resolution backing the union’s requests. At the time of the meeting, the resolution is still being drafted.
“We are dealing with some challenges and concerns in regards to our (work) environment,” Tesoriero said. “I and others in my department have been threatened with both physical and verbal abuse.”
The negotiation sessions have been drawing significant numbers of union members, with around 100 observing the discussions in person in the conference room and around another 100 who watch in a nearby auditorium, Bauman said. Between 100 and 200 members also tune in remotely, she said.
Interest is so high because the stakes are also high, Bushway said.
More than 700 support staff participated in a recent survey in which 71% said they struggled to afford rent or mortgage and 59% struggled to afford food or groceries on their current wages, she said.
Another Burlington resident, Amanda LaFond, shared those concerns with the city council. In 23 years of working in a hospital laboratory, she said, she has never been able to afford to pay for employer-sponsored health insurance from the hospital.
“After one check after taxes, I barely afford rent,” LaFond said. “I have to sometimes decide which one of my bills I am going to pay, or if I can afford food.”
Those are not the kind of choices that someone working for the state’s largest and wealthiest hospital should have to be making, Bushway said. That is why the union is continuing to hold firm in its demand for higher wages, particularly for those who are lowest paid.
“We wouldn’t be standing out in the rain and thunder if everything was all fine in here,” Bushway said. “We’re not going to settle until all our co-workers are taken care of.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the timeline for the proposed pay increases for the lowest paid workers and misstated the number of people serving on the union’s bargaining team.
