Updated at 5:30 p.m.
The nurses’ union at the University of Vermont Medical Center officially went on strike at 7 a.m. Thursday.
A sizable crowd of nurses, most wearing red shirts and holding signs and cups of coffee, gathered outside the hospital’s main entrance by 6:10 a.m. The group cheered as more colleagues joined them. Some talked among themselves about the disappointing end to negotiations with hospital management, which refused to meet nurses’ contract demands. The union has complained about short staffing and said the hospital must increase compensation to attract more nurses.
Keith Brunner, a union spokesperson, said nearly 1,300 nurses had signed up to picket during the strike. Union leaders addressed the crowd with words of encouragement at 7 a.m., and then the medical center workers split up into three groups based on nursing units to picket at different hospital entrances.
“Safe staffing saves lives,” chanted hundreds of nurses as they marched to the hospital’s Colchester Avenue entrance. Drivers and motorcyclists honked at the marchers and many gave them thumbs up. Nurses carried homemade signs, some of which likened hospital administrators to members of President Donald Trump’s administration.
They lined up on either side of the hospital entrance to picket, but will have to stay off hospital property.
“None of us want to be striking because we care tremendously about our patients, but we also need to be able to take care of ourselves before we can take care of others, and the hospital is making it very difficult to do that,” said Savannah Solomon, a community health nurse.
Tiffany Choiniere, an operating room nurse rallying with Solomon, said she is frequently not able to finish her shift on time because there are not enough nurses to take over.
The hospital’s interior was calm and quiet as replacement nurses began their shifts. Police officers hired by the hospital were posted at different doors to make sure rally rowdiness stayed outside.
A final night of bargaining on Wednesday ended after the union rejected the hospital’s proposal for a 14 percent wage increase over the next three years, an amount that included the annual 2 percent “step increases” nurses receive as they move up the pay ladder. Julie MacMillan, the union’s lead negotiator, said a big sticking point of the proposal was that it does not offer enough to nurses at the top of the pay scale, who would not receive such steps. MacMillan said Eileen Whalen, the hospital’s chief operating officer, walked away from the table after the union rejected her offer.
“Last night was incredibly disappointing. Eileen Whalen came and spoke to us as if we were small children,” said MacMillan. “After we offered her an opportunity to avert this work stoppage, she said, ‘Our last offer is fair and our last offer is it,’ and then walked away from the table.”
Picketing at hospital entrances slowed at noon when the union held a second rally outside the hospital. Nurses from Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital, a UVM Health Network affiliate in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, Mass., gave speeches and led chants. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who held a press conference in support of the nurses earlier this month, called in to express his support for the nurses.
Around the same time, Sanders’ supporters within a 10-mile radius of Burlington received a text from his campaign encouraging them to “stand alongside the nurses.” Shannon Jackson, Sanders’ campaign manager, confirmed the campaign sent the texts to about 20,000 people in its database. Campaign staffers also attended the nurses’ rallies and supplied water to the picket line, according to Jackson.
Later Thursday, Whalen and chief medical officer Dr. Isabelle Desjardins held a press conference to answer questions about the strike.
Whalen said the transition to temporary nurses, who will work 12-hour shifts, occurred seamlessly Thursday morning. She said 275 temporary nurses were in place at the hospital at 7:00 a.m., along with 90 more temporary nurses at outpatient clinics. Whalen did not provide numbers for how many union nurses came to work Thursday, but said 125 gave the hospital advance notice that they would come in during the 48-hour strike. She was unable to say how much the temporary nurses will be paid, but said the total cost of the strike will likely be in the millions of dollars.
When asked to respond to comments from union supporters attacking the salaries of hospital executives, Whalen said salaries are set by the hospital board.
“Our board compensation philosophy is consistent with many other academic medical centers, and I think that like other academic medical centers the board sets a fair salary to be able to recruit, retain, attract the highest quality people,” said Whalen.
Whalen rejected nurses’ accusations of bullying by management and said that many members of her staff have felt intimidated by union members.
Although the union is still asking for wage increases 11 percent higher than what the hospital is offering, Whalen said agreements have been reached over staffing and safety concerns. One nursing complaint has been that charge nurses, who are supposed to take control in the event of an emergency, have been given bedside tasks. This means if an emergency occurs, they might have to abandon the patient they are working with. Whalen said the hospital will hire nine or 10 more nurses to ensure charge nurses are not given assignments.
On Wednesday night, Whalen had sent out a statement that said that the hospital met with the union in good faith for 22 bargaining sessions, and that officials listened to and acted upon many union requests.
“We’re disappointed the union did not change its position, and continued to insist on a raise of 23 percent over the next three years,” the statement read. “In the end, the organization could not responsibly meet the union’s wage demands and also meet all of the other responsibilities we have to our patients and families, our employees, and the communities we serve.”
On Friday, community members led by progressive advocacy group Rights & Democracy plan to picket outside the office of UVM Medical Center CEO John Brumsted. During the negotiations, the nurses’ union and others have frequently brought up Brumsted’s salary, which was about $2.2 million in 2015.
“We all know that this struggle is about more than a contract,” R&D executive director James Haslam wrote in an email to supporters. “On one side we have Brumsted — a multimillionaire who puts corporate profits ahead of patients and ahead of the dignity of nurses — and on the other side we have 1,800 nurses —middle-class Vermonters, our neighbors, who tend to us when we are sick and dying, and who are saying ‘enough is enough.'”
The strike is expected to last until 7 a.m. Saturday. Picketing will take place 24 hours a day at the hospital’s main building, while groups will also picket other hospital campuses in the area.
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I wonder if UVM is happy to be associated with the UVMMC after this debacle.
Don’t forget, UVMMC, a $1 billion megacorporation, doesn’t pay property taxes!
Brumstead and Whalen are unreasonable industrial medicine monopolists and they both need to go!
“In the end, the organization could not responsibly meet BRUMSTED’S and TOP ADMINISTRATORS’ wage demands, and also meet all of the other responsibilities we have to our NURSES, patients and families, our employees, and the communities we serve.
There, Eileen: fixed it for ya.
Can we please have some reporting on the details of the contract negotiations? The only numbers being reported in media are 23% and 13%, which, I believe, are only the maximum wage increase for the most experienced nurses who haven’t received any raises in years. The administrators love to throw out “23%” when it’s really not the whole story.
Higher wages-> More full time nurses -> less overworked nurses and less travel nurses -> better care and no moral care-prioritization dilemmas for nurses -> better patient outcomes->lower healthcare costs /// Also- stronger Vermont due to money staying here rather than leaving with the travel nurses.
The hospital can afford this. Don’t believe for a second that anything more important than safe staffing would be financially compromised.
Time to cap Vermont non-profit executive salaries. We are all paying the taxes which the hospital isn’t, and they are not holding up their end of the bargain by being a good community member. I am not happy that the profit of the “non profit” is being spent frivolously on things such as executive compensation, moving executive offices downtown, rebranding, installing a problematic computer record system, rather than, at the least, investing in the community members who are the most influential on the quality of patient care. Remember, the patients are you, your family, your friends, your neighbors.
I can understand the protesting. What I can’t understand is why the signs on trashing Pres Trump. He doesn’t own UVM, he doesn’t sit on the board, he doesn’t own any stock in it nor does his administration. Sounds like the union just wants to blame Pres. Trump for this. This has to do with the nurses and the administration of UVM.
Julie MacMillan, the unions lead negotiator is going to screw this all up for the nurses. Unions only look out for their bosses, so their CEO and directors can get higher pay and up the worker’s dues. Do you ever stop and think how much these union thugs get paid?? They get pretty good pay and I mean the bosses not the workers..
BDE: I don’t think you mean to imply that Julie MacMillian is a “union boss” but, to clear things up, Julie MacMillian is a nurse at UVMMC and is not paid for her work with the union. The bargaining committee, as they call the group of nurses involved in negiotiation, are all nurses who are working all their shifts and volunteering quite a bit of their time and energy into the contract dispute. Working a 12 hour shift then showing up to get stonewalled by a mediator must be fun.
I wonder how much of a bonus Brumsted will get if he keeps wage increase under X%.
These people need to be fired!!! Greedy. Political idiots. FIRE THEM!!
ALL jobs in Vermont rank lower in pay than most other states (blame the frigging Democrats who run Vermont like a Socialist state) ! A 24% raise in salary will be great for them but a real drain on Vermonters’ pocketbooks. Who do you think will be paying for these raises? Seriously. Who do you think will pick up the tab? It will be YOU! Can you afford a 24% hike in your medical bills? These people are sickening.
Thank you BDE
Mr Morgan. Yes 24% sounds like a lot but u need to look at the facts. Many nurses havent had a raise in 6-10 years. Even at 5 yrs plus 3 for contact thats only 3% per yr. also hospital is more than financially sound. The only reason they would need to raise rates to cover this is to put more money into land purchases or other rentals to remain nonprofit. They make too much money to be nonprofit and last year had to donate millions. If they spent that money on staff instead of banking it staff would spend it and more money spent means more money to state taxes. Please look at the big picture not just the one liners from million dollar hospital administrators.
Its a beautiful day. Enjoy it !!
A 24% raise would put these nurses near average starting pay for nurses living in Boston metro area ($31 here, $42 Boston)….I dont think that is reasonable. 3%-9% or so seems more reasonable, with an 1.5% annual raise going forward to match the average cost of living increase the over the last 10 years.
Currently nursing are asking for 23% again asking for. That based on your numbers 31×23% would put them at 38.13 almost $4 less than Boston. And thats in three years not now. If u use your 1.5% inflation then Boston will be making 43.89. So that would be $5.76 less than Boston. Seems reasonable to me. We should all agree that this math is a little flawed but gets u a very close estimate. Remember its over three years so that 1.5 u mention is included in the 23%.
Thanks for talking respectfully
My question is weather The Hospital is going to lock the nurses out come Saturday morning. They’ve got all the replacement nirses in place ( who are usually hired weekly). That is what happened at my hospital when the RN union went on strike.
@ BDE
You’re one-sidedly complaining about name-calling on these posts? Are you for real? Your own earlier posts on this thread accused UVM and UVMMC of being “unethical” and “immoral,” and their leaders of being “”psychopaths.” And many other posters on these several threads about the nurses strike have said absolutely horrible, hateful things about the hospital’s leaders.
When you take back what you yourself said, and chastise your allies for their name-calling, then you can preach.
The US average monthly health insurance premium is 321 dollars for an individual. That’s about 3850 per year. For most individuals, this is far more than what they actually spend on healthcare. If this potential raise is going to increase the cost of my healthcare even more, just hire their replacements full time and let the striking nurses find other work. Healthcare costs are already beyond ridiculous.
Again the hospital is making insane amounts of money. They can cover this without raising rates but thats up to the administration. So far they are taking that money and putting it in the back. Over 250 days cash on hand. Money that doesnt go back to the economy or state of VT to help our taxes. 250 day with no income and hospital could run as normal covering all expenses thats ALOT of money.
The replacements are making over $60/hr plus food travel expenses and $300 a night hotel rooms. On top of that the company they work for has a fee. So Im thinking your insurance premium would go up a heck of a lot more with them.
Again the hospital is making a ridiculous amount of money. The hospital can more than afford this raise. The hospital has over 250 days cash on hand. That means they can run the hospital as is for over 250 days without any income. Thats A LOT of money that is not making its way back to the economy or our state in the form of taxes.
As for hiring these replacements they receive over $60/hr plus food, travel expenses and $300/night hotels. On top of that the company receives a fee. That would definitely increase your premiums a lot more that this raise would.
Remember these nurses on strike live here and support our community. They are doing this to improve our care by getting more nurses to the bedside of our love ones.
Someone posted $321 as average monthly health insurance premium? My god that would make my life much easier – try $649/month for me (bcbsvt) – and that is with around $6000 deductible – Im stopping paying for coverage this year – it no longer makes any sense, on top of insane property taxes. (Of course for the school teachers, who only pay 25% of their families coverage with the tax payers covering the rest, $321/person would be outrageous). I think the UVM nurses should be paid what the average of say, 5 North East cities pay their nurses, those cities being of similar similar cost of living ratings. Not less, not more – with an annual 1.5% col adjustment -That would be fair.
Sounds good James. Thats what they are trying for. But the hospital and media spin is making it sound like they are asking for more than that. Their pay scale has not moved in close to ten years. So with your 1.5 that 19.5% for catch up and the next three years again rough math. Thats closer to what they are asking than hospital is offering.
@Scuba: “Healthcare costs are already beyond ridiculous.”
Absolutely. But instead of blaming the nurses, let’s examine the true root causes and work to change THOSE:
– Outlandish executive compensation
– Outrageous insurance premiums, and deductibles that mean most people can’t even use their insurance
– Pharmaceutical company price gouging
– Policies that favor all three industries, and NONE that favor regular Americans
Nurses need our support. They’re fighting for us, too. Brumsted, Whelan, and other multi-million-dollar “earners” — none of whom are on the front lines of care — don’t give a rodent’s bum about anything but profits, and anyone but themselves.
Letsthink….I did not say 1.5% for the past several years catch-upplus another 15%+ – that is over a 20% raise and will put Burlington nurses close to what those in a major city start at. What I said is a rasaonble raise of 9% (or even 10-15% if you like), or so, and add 1.5% bump every year thereafter as 1.5% is what cost of living has been averaging. Then I suggested, which I feel is most fair, is simply take 5 northeast cities with very similar cost of living matrix numbers as Burlington area (easily available online), average what nurses start at in those 5 cities, and I think that is a fair number for a nurse to start at, (or use as a max/min range). It seems they start nurses higher in Plattsburgh, but also dont give the bumps you are seeking on top of that after 10 years. You cannot have it both ways I think (dont think you will get that).
“Specifically, I was thinking of the endless political bashing that goes on on this site. It’s such thrash. Doesn’t REALLY matter what the issue, it seems the ultimate goal for posting at all is to bash the opposite political party. It’s disgusting.”
I think calling the hospital and it’s officials unethical, immoral, and psychopathic falls EXACTLY into the category you are complaining about.
It’s ok to side with the nurses in this dispute if you wish, but the people on the other side are not unethical, immoral, or psychopathic. They are people. Doing their jobs.
You do crack me up James. What you are saying is what the nurses want but youre not getting how the math works. The nurses are 47 or 48th in the Nation for pay because they have not moved the scale in close to ten years so looking at your 1.5% u need to factor that in to bring them up to what the norm is for other nurses in comparable cities. But thats fine if u dont understand. Im moving on. Have a good night
psychopaths
Your word.
The nurses should make what nurses make in other cities with similar cost of living numbers – so should doctors and administration – not what Boston or NYC or any other more expensive city non-profit medical staff make…take cities with a similar cost of living (Portland ME, for example) and that it a fair pay. It’s a simple concept.
To put it plain and simple, it’s upper management that are the greedy ones and not the nurses.
if the UVMmc CEO is making more than what a similar CEO at a non profit hospital makes in a city of similar cost of living index, there is a good argument to reduce his pay. Providence RI is another example of a city with similar COLI to compare to Burlington for an RN starting salary. Find some cities with similar coli #’s as Burlington and that would be a good place to determine if starting RN pay is fair or not as it is. Starting an RN with just a 4 year degree at over $70k in Burlington area is pretty crazy in my opinion (Boston, NYC, sure, that would be reasonable). To compare, Lawyers with a 3 year law degree do not start that high in VT…and those lawyers who stay in criminal defense and non-profit sectors struggle to get over $100k after several years.