This commentary is by members of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals Bargaining Committee. The Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, AFT Vermont represents 2,700 nurses and technical professionals at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. A list of signatories is below the text.
We are the LPNs, RNs and APRNs that work at the University of Vermont Medical Center. Our job, primarily, is to care for you, our community members across Vermont and upstate New York. We show up for work every day doing our best to keep you healthy and safe so you can return home.
We work exorbitant amounts of overtime and watch with frustration as the travel nurses we work with make much higher wages than we do while receiving housing stipends. Our wages do not match those of others working in academic medical centers in areas across the country with a similar cost of living. Until the UVM Medical Center is competitive in wages, they will continue to rely on travel staff, who cost more than hiring a full-time employee with benefits.
UVM Medical Center and our state must do better. Even when the wage disparity is fixed, there is still no housing available. Vermont needs mental health facilities and long-term care facilities now. Emergency departments across the state are suffering because of inaction by our state government to fix these problems. Even the housing built by the medical center is unaffordable for most.
Some legislators are wasting time and taxpayer money on trying to reduce the power of the Green Mountain Care Board instead of applauding them for standing up to the UVM Health Network and the Vermont Hospital Association. Health care costs are rising at an alarming rate and the Green Mountain Care Board is the safety net for controlling costs in our state that would be passed on to you.
The UVM Medical Center is planning to build an outpatient surgery center that will add to the already stretched-thin nursing workforce. Their plan? Bring in more travel nurse staff.
This is unacceptable. You deserve to be cared for by nurses that have a personal stake in our community. We have some amazing travel nurses who would love to stay and work in Vermont but cannot afford to based on housing and wages.
We now ask for support and recognition from you. We are mentally, physically and spiritually exhausted. Moral injury is more than just a catchphrase for us. It is our existence. We are repeatedly asked by our employer to do more with less. We leave work in tears, frustrated that we couldn’t do more.
We will head to the table to bargain for our next contract with our employers in April, and we will be asking for what we’ll need, which the hospital will say is a lot. That is because it is going to take a lot to bring new nurses here — and get current nurses to stay. Vermont is not affordable for those looking to move here and raise a family. We are working hard to change that narrative.
We have no doubt that the hospital will say they cannot afford our proposals, but the truth is they cannot afford not to. We need to recruit and retain bedside staff, not more executive officers.
We have complete transparency with our members and our community as a nonprofit. Our contract is posted on our website. Our books and meetings are open to any members who want to see how we conduct business. It is a shame our hospital and network cannot say the same.
Again, please know that when we fight at the table, we are fighting to serve you, our community, in the way you and our members deserve.
Sincerely,
Deb Snell, Jessica Kilpatrick, Kate Hesler, Ann Niekrewicz, Molly Place, Kacey Walsh, Courtney Gregoire, Julia Cronan, Helen Thurston, Jared Hoffman, Susan Tschorn, Jennifer Long, Rachel Foxx, Ann-Elise Johnson, Eisha Lichtenstein, Benton Taylor, Robert Heyn, Lucia Thomsen, Lulu Healey, Evan Ellenberger, Tim Schad
