Nurses will start work as usual Saturday morning at the University of Vermont Medical center after a 48-hour strike. But their union has said another strike is not off the table as it remains at odds with the hospital over a three-year contract.
Members of the 1,800-member union walked off the job Thursday complaining that low wages have led to staffing problems. The union is seeking roughly a 23 percent wage increase for registered nurses over three years.
The hospital’s chief operating officer, Eileen Whalen, called the union’s request “unrealistic” at a press conference Friday afternoon. Hospital spokesman Michael Carrese said it would cost $30 million over three years.
Meanwhile, the two-day strike cost the hospital about $3 million, according to Whalen. Much of that went to paying for nurses from out of town to cover for the strikers.
Emotions have run high during rallies and picketing. Many nurses waved homemade signs mocking hospital administrators and comparing them to members of President Donald Trump’s administration. Hundreds of nurses chanted and cheered next to hospital entrances as passing drivers honked their horns in support.
Soon, they’ll be back at work.
“There’s that level of mistrust that we’ve talked about having built over the last several weeks between management and us,” said Tristin Adie, a nurse practitioner and member of the union bargaining team. “I think it’s something that’s going to hang over us as we go back in.”
Adie said union members who participated in the strike are disappointed in colleagues who did not. The hospital reported that 74 of its nurses showed up to work Thursday, and 93 did on Friday.
Some nurses told union leaders they felt they could not lose two days of wages, or did not want to leave their patients, according to Adie. She said nurses who picketed sacrificed wages because they felt it was the only way to achieve a settlement that will create better long-term conditions.
“We feel as a group that we’ve sent a very strong message that we’re standing up for better care for our patients and better working conditions for all of us. And to not have our colleagues join us in that effort is disappointing,” she said. “So it will be a little difficult working side by side with those folks, but we’re professionals and we’ll do what we have to do to take care of our patients.”
Whalen said Friday that the hospital must work proactively to bring people back together after the strike. She said steps will be taken to promote healing as an organization and to start conversations between different members of the hospital’s team.
Still, another strike is possible. Prior to striking, the union must take a full-member vote. Its bargaining committee would have to give the hospital 10 days notice.
Adie said some union members hope to hold a strike vote immediately, while energy is high. Members of the bargaining team chose to limit the strike to two days because the union had never held a strike before, she said. Health care workers often hold short strikes out of concern for patients, she explained. Moving forward, the union could vote for a longer strike.
Adie said she hopes the community support evident during the strike will convince the hospital to “make some movement” at the bargaining table. New bargaining sessions have yet to be scheduled.
Drivers who passed picketing nurses honked in support. Elected officials — including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — doctors and other labor unions showed support too.
Whalen said the hospital was not preparing for another strike at this time.
“What we are really focusing on is welcoming our nurses back into the organization and getting back to the table,” she said.
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To put it plain and simple, it’s upper management that are the greedy ones and not the nurses. Upper management is making all the money that they don’t need whereas the nurses are fighting for raises that they should get. A lot of them have to work overtime just to make ends meet. The hospital can afford to do it!
Gi Gripe, youre so negative. (That might sound familiar.)
I hate that in an emergency UVM Medical is the only local choice as it is so clearly mismanaged. Having been a patient there under emergency conditions within the last couple years, I saw first hand how poorly the place was run.
In recent years, whenever I have been referred to a specialist at the hospital, it has been equally mismanaged. One time the specialist didn’t show up after they had called me 3 times to confirm and I showed up having taken half a day off work for the appointment. My other appointments weren’t much better. I no longer will take referrals to hospital associated specialists because they don’t have enough time to spend with patients to ever diagnose and treat them due to the over scheduling and mismanaging of resources.
Nurses at the hospital often have to pick up all the dropped balls to make sure patients feel cared for and, more importantly, are cared for. Given UVM’s serious issues with understaffing and time management, this is a huge burden and we all should support our nurses as they may one day pick up the dropped ball that saves our lives.
The union is supposed to help their members by helping with food, bills whatever. They don’t do that anymore? The union is upset that all nurses didn’t do the strike.? So are those nurses scabs too? No they aren’t They are nurses. “not having all our colleagues join us in that effort is disappointing, she said. So it will be a little difficult working side by side with those folks, but were professionals and well do what we have to do to take care of our patients. It shouldn’t be difficult to work alongside each other. Maybe it will be with Tristin Adie, a nurse practitioner and member of the union bargaining team. .. Not everyone has to follow along with the union. The union bosses get paid, but the protesters don’t while protesting. I hope the nurses do get a decent raise it may not be what they want but hopefully, they can come to an agreement…
There has to be more to this than a 24% raise. What are the other demands? I do agree with the hospital that 24% is not realistic. Even the 13% over 3 years is far more than most will get.
The hospital can afford to do it, Gi, because they’re gouging the rest of us. To heck with increasing costs…how about cutting them so that the government doesn’t need to mandate heath coverage to ensure that it can fund essential programs? A lot of non-healthcare folks have to work overtime just to afford health care, and they’re going to have to work more overtime if costs go up.
This article is so inadequate. Key issues are ignored or glossed over. For example, 24% over three years is catch up for a decade of stagnant wages (ranking 47th in nation), while exec salaries soared, hospital trustees signed a contract with Sinex to occupy high priced offices in the new towers downtown, and UVM Medical Center exceeded its net patient revenue budget (surplus) by $38.3 million. https://www.google.com/amp/s/vtdigger.org/…
I hope the union does hold another strike vote immediately. It’s already clear that Whelan has no intention of re-negotiating in good faith. And the fact that she was willing to spend $3m over two days to AVOID paying nurses what they’re worth, as opposed to spending approximately $4.6m over an entire year* to pay them what they ARE worth, speaks volumes as to her priorities.
The community is behind you, nurses. Patients before profits!!
*$14m difference between what the nurses are requesting and the hospital is offering, divided by three years.
Scuba
How about cutting upper management’s pay to give to the nurses. They don’t need all of that money. Or they can just cut some of upper management. For being supposedly non profit they seem to have a good profit..