This commentary is by Ellen Kaye and Claire Whitehouse, co-presidents of UVM Staff United. It is signed by 11 Vermont higher education and health care unions, listed below the text of the commentary.
On Tuesday, May 20, the dean of UVM libraries eliminated three frontline positions at the Dana Health Sciences Library, along with two other positions that are currently unfilled, leaving these suddenly unemployed workers and their library colleagues in disbelief and shock as the remaining staff scrambled to find ways to keep Vermont’s only medical library open to the UVM community, health care providers, patients and the public. And a week later, UVM’s associate controller laid off two employees performing essential regulatory work in the treasury services department.
UVM blamed these layoffs on the rising cost of health care, the federal government’s threats to higher ed funding, and, in the case of the libraries, the astronomical cost of journal subscriptions and databases. Yet UVM has chosen to retain many expensive budget line items, including raises for executives exceeding those negotiated by our unions, and we have heard that a multimillion dollar library redesign is in the works.
Our unions ask: why do our institutions cut good jobs and public services instead of addressing the root causes of rising costs?
Across Vermont, too many of our institutions are responding to the rising cost of health insurance by eliminating jobs and reducing services Our state legislators just passed education reform bill H.454, which aims to reduce the rising tax burden of public education. Vermont’s health insurance premiums, which are the highest in the country, are a major driver of increasing education costs.
Earlier this spring, the city of Burlington laid off 25 employees in response to a budget crisis in part caused by the doubling of the city’s estimated employee benefits expenses. Investigations by the VT Health Care 911 coalition suggest that the primary cause of these runaway costs are UVM Health Network’s lopsided priorities: growing upper management jobs beyond industry standards while decreasing the number of employees engaged in direct patient care.
The real question is: why do our public institutions and lawmakers choose to cut good Vermont jobs instead of acting together to rein in costs? Fixing the structural deficiencies of a broken health care system is challenging, but not impossible.
In the short term, we can start by confronting bloated executive compensation and bonuses at the UVM Health Network. In the longer term, we can commit to working together to enact a single payer health care system that more efficiently and effectively provides care for all.
The cruelty and chaos of our federal government makes it critical for Vermont employers to do all they can to retain jobs. We have already seen many job losses in our state caused directly by Trump cuts: from federal jobs to federal contractors to the potential loss of programs like Northlands Jobs Corps. In addition to the Library and Treasury layoffs at UVM, several of our grant-funded colleagues have lost their jobs in the last month due to non-renewal of funding.
Vermont cannot address the root causes of these federal cuts alone, though our legislators and our people power play an important role in facing down these threats. At the same time, it is essential that we pull out all the stops to keep decent jobs funded by state, municipal and private dollars.
To do this, employers and employees alike must come together to fight against corporate excess in statewide issues like health care premiums, and in industry-specific issues like the cost of journal subscriptions. And in this time of hardship, our administrators must show real leadership by cutting executive perks to save middle-class jobs.
At UVM, we are hopeful for an opportunity to change course. UVM will welcome Marlene Tromp as its next president on July 1. President Tromp has a choice: continue to opportunistically cut decent Vermont jobs and balance the budget on the backs of dedicated UVM workers, or invest in the people who make UVM work: in our expertise, our institutional knowledge, and our teaching and scholarship.
President Tromp can choose to put UVM back on track as a public good for all Vermonters, serving students and residents. Our unions call on her to make the right choice, and serve as a model for employers across Vermont.
UVM Staff United/AFT Local 5754 (UVM)
United Academics/AAUP-AFT Local 3203 (UVM)
United Electrical/Local 267 (UVM)
Graduate Students Union/GSU UAW 2322 (UVM)
Vermont State Colleges United Professionals/AFT Local 6217
Vermont State Colleges Faculty Federation/AFT Local 3180
PPNNE United (Planned Parenthood)/AFT Local 05566
Central Vermont Health Care United/AFT Local 5224
UVMMC Support Staff United/AFT Local 5223
Vermont Federation of Nursing & Health Professionals/AFT Local 5221
Howard Center Workers’ Union/AFSCME 1674
Soteria House of Pathways VT Union/AFSCME 1674
St. Michael’s Custodians’ Union/AFSCME 1674
Rights & Democracy Workers’ Union/AFSCME 1674
Spectrum/AFSCME 1674
