Updated 9:51 p.m.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) criticized administrators of the University of Vermont Medical Center and called on them to meet face-to-face with hospital nurses during a press conference at his Burlington office on Friday.
More than 1,000 nurses are prepared to strike on July 12 and 13 amid contentious contract negotiations. Nurses are calling for salary parity with the nurses at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, N.Y., which is a member of the UVM Health Network. The union says the hospital is dangerously understaffed because low salaries create long-term vacancies and high turnover rates.
“Like so many other things, this contract negotiation is about priorities,” said Sanders. “I find it really hard to believe that the hospital has enough money to pay nearly $11 million to 15 administrators, including more than $2 million to the CEO, but apparently doesn’t have enough money to pay their nurses the same wages as nurses earn just across the lake in Plattsburgh, where the cost of living is, in fact, lower.”
A bargaining session between the union and the administration was set for 5 p.m. on Friday, but union leaders said hospital representatives will not sit in the same room as them and instead plan to rely on a federal mediator to relay information between the two sides. Prior to Friday, hospital representatives met with the union’s bargaining team directly, according to the union.
Sanders said nurses are the backbone of any hospital, but that they cannot provide the quality of care patients need and deserve when they are stretched too thin by hospital vacancies. He criticized the hospital for planning to spend money to hire replacement workers during the strike rather than agreeing to pay permanent nurses a competitive wage.
If the medical center does not pay nurses enough to live in dignity and raise families, Vermont will lose them to other states, said Sanders.
“I find it even harder to believe the medical center when it says it has to pay these inflated administrators’ salaries to attract the best and the brightest people to run the hospital,” said Sanders. “How about paying competitive wages to attract the best and the brightest nurses who actually care for the patients?”
Sanders also criticized the hospital for paying nurse’s assistants less than $15 an hour. The nurses’ union has demanded a $15-an-hour minimum wage for all hospital staff.
This is not the first time Sanders has criticized the medical center. In 1987, when he was mayor of Burlington, Sanders served the tax-exempt hospital a tax bill. The hospital sued the city and won, but ultimately agreed to payments in lieu of taxes that continue today.
Hospital spokesman Michael Carrese previously told Seven Days that wages for other hospital staff are not part of the contract negotiations with the nurses. He said the hospital’s minimum hourly wage is currently $11.79, but it will be $15 by 2020. The hospital must be careful when it raises wages because it is such a large employer, and a shift in wages would pressure other businesses to do the same, according to Carrese.
Chief operating officer Eileen Whalen said in a statement Friday afternoon that the hospital is “100 percent focused” on the bargaining session and requested respect for the federal mediation process. Hospital officials remain hopeful that a resolution will be reached before the strike, according to the statement.
The nurses are less optimistic. Deb Snell, union vice president, said the union has rented an office on Colchester Avenue across from the medical center to use as headquarters during the strike.
Sanders was not the only politician speaking out on behalf of the nurses. State Rep. Johannah “Joey” Donovan (D-Burlington) and Sen. Philip Baruth (D/P- Chittenden) attended a press conference Monday during which the nurses announced they had served the hospital a strike notice. Donovan announced that 43 members of the Vermont legislature had signed a letter to hospital CEO Dr. John Brumsted expressing concern about a potential strike and chronic understaffing at the hospital.
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful James Ehlers also sent the hospital a letter in support of the nurses, calling for “a fair contract resolution.” On Monday, VTDigger.org reported that Ehlers had criticized labor unions on Twitter several years ago.
Doctors have also joined the chorus of voices in support of the union. Ninety physicians and other health care providers signed a letter calling on the hospital to increase compensation for nurses.
Dr. Prema Menon, a pulmonary and critical care physician and letter signee, told Seven Days that short staffing makes her outpatient clinic feel as if there is a strike going on every day. It is not unheard of for the clinic to go without nurses for two days, said Menon. The clinic currently has one nurse for 20 providers, and has had seven different nurses fill that role since 2015, she said. The staffing makes it difficult to respond to patients who call in with concerns, she said.
Menon said a strike would be devastating for her inpatient clinic, where patients are admitted overnight, since understanding how a hospital’s system works is as important to safe care as nursing skill.
But understaffing has already made patient care difficult too, Menon said. Charge nurses in the Intensive Care Unit, who are supposed to take the lead in case of an emergency, have been given bedside duties because of short staffing. This means if an emergency occurs they have to leave a bedside to help, she said.
In an email Friday evening, Carrese said the hospital has hired more than 754 nurses and support staff since October 2016. The hospital’s administrators understand that paying competitive wages is key to attracting and retaining employees, Carrese said, and believe they have put an offer on the table that is fair and competitive.
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“Five of Hoffer’s (publicly paid, supposedly non-partisan position as public auditor) eight comments on this thread, are partisan comments advocating for the employee side of a private employment-employer issue, posted during work (i.e., taxpayer paid) hours. 3:15 pm, 12;25 pm, 8:29 am, 12:38 pm, 1:01 pm.”
My goodness. This is really sad, although not the first time. Instead of dealing with the facts, you attack the messenger with bogus allegations.
3:15 PM was on a Sunday
12:25 PM was during my lunch
8:29 AM was just before I started work
12:38 PM was during my lunch
1:01 PM was during my lunch
Do you really think people buy this crap? You are embarrassing yourself.
As stated below, it seems like Portland ME is a reasonable comparison for wages for a nurse…one must use cost of living as a reasonable comparison when seeking wage parity in comparing one groups wage to a similar group as a basis for seeking wage increases. I just don’t see where or how a Burlington area nurse could justify a 20% raise – 5% perhaps, but not 20% plus. They should strike if they feel they can get a hefty raise, but on same note, the nurses should be willing to accept that they could be locked out or others take their jobs, or accept a reasonable and small pay raise to out them in parity with cities in the region with similar cost of living numbers.
Five of Hoffer’s (publicly paid, supposedly non-partisan position as public auditor) eight comments on this thread, are partisan comments advocating for the employee side of a private employment-employer issue, posted during work (i.e., taxpayer paid) hours. 3:15 pm, 12;25 pm, 8:29 am, 12:38 pm, 1:01 pm.
Sean L — “I think Portland, ME is a closer analog than Boston for Burlington in terms of its general qualities (population, region, major medical center, je ne sais quoi).”
A reasonable comparison (and thanks for digging into the data). But there are other factors, including opportunity. Here are the number of registered nurses in each MSA.
2,370 Burlington
4,520 Portland
43,150 Boston
122,780 NYC
This matters because the competition is based in part on where the jobs are (along with wages). Not surprisingly, there are considerably more annual openings in NYC and Boston (from both growth and replacement) than in Burlington or Portland.
Moreover, most people are in relationships (or at least share housing) so household income is not usually the same as a nurses income so our cost of living musings are of limited value. Obviously, wages can’t be based on the personal circumstances of employees, but a 30% higher wage for the nurse in a two-income household is likely to be a significant consideration for a couple looking to relocate (especially since the spouse or partner’s income will also be higher in Boston or NYC).
Perhaps there are aspects of the Boston and Burlington markets beyond cost of living that account for some of the difference in median nurse pay. While Doug Hoffer is using superior data, interpretations may vary. Again, I think this is a flawed way to determine fair compensation, but…
I think Portland, ME is a closer analog than Boston for Burlington in terms of its general qualities (population, region, major medical center, je ne sais quoi). To add to this ongoing Assumptions/Hoffer debate (using Hoffer’s dataset from BEA), regional price parity between Portland and Burlington are pretty close (101 and 103.2 respectively). Looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, median hourly wages for nurses in Portland and Burlington are $32.30 and $32.01 respectively. If this were the only analysis I used, I would determine that UVM nurses are reasonably compensated.
Or use Worcester, MA if you want a more favorable outcome for nurses. Small city with the same cost of living according to BEA, but nurse median hourly wage is $38.45. In this example our nurses need a 20% raise.
Conclusions? I hope the UVM nurses get a fair and reasonable raise. Also, if we keep this going we will definitely solve this complex issue within the confines of an internet comments section (sarcasm).
One more thing. The Dept. of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) publishes “Fair Market Rents for all counties and metropolitan statistical areas. Here are the 2018 figures for the Boston & Burlington MSAs. Last I checked they used the 45th percentile (just below the median). Note: I don’t think HUD’s methodology is optimal, but it’s the same everywhere so the numbers are apples to apples.
One bedroom
$1,421 Boston
$1,121 Burlington
Two bedroom
$1,740 Boston
$1,442 Burlington
Boston is certainly higher, but not nearly twice as high.
“Here’s greater Boston: $600,000”
Your own citation says otherwise. The one with the median price in all the surrounding towns shows over 40 towns at less than $400,000.
There is no doubt that some housing is more expensive in Boston. But based on what you provided, it is not accurate to make a blanket statement that “Housing is twice as expensive in greater Boston as in northwest Vermont.”
“That is simply not true.”
Really?
Here’s greater Boston: $600,000
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/best-places…
http://realestate.boston.com/buying/2018/0…
May 2018: The median sales price of a single-family home in Greater Boston rose to a record high of $612,000 last month, a 3.7 percent increase from April 2017. Condo prices also hit a record high for the month, with a 14.2 percent jump taking the median price from $520,000 to $593,629.
Here’s greater Burlington and northwest Vermont: $300,000
https://www.zillow.com/burlington-vt/home-…
https://www.hickokandboardman.com/vermont-…
What’s your data?
Housing is twice as expensive in greater Boston as in northwest Vermont.
It seems the contentions here are that nurses need more pay so they will be in line with pay for nurses elsewhere, and thus more nurses will seek jobs in Burlington and remain. That is reasonable, but one must use cost of living differences (+ and -) if one is using other areas to compare pay to. the salaries paid to doctors and nurses and other staff, is the largest expense driver for health care and health insurance, so if a union is seeking more for their members, it is reasonable to use good data to show why this is justified. Whatever the stated $42/hr pay in Boston area is equal to in Burlington area equates to, given the differences in cost of living additions and subtractions, that would be a fair pay rate.
Any housing within commuting distance of Boston is way more expensive than housing within commuting distance of Burlington.
That is simply not true.