UVMMC support staff and techs reach a tentative two-year deal, averting a strike
A historic postcard of Mary Fletcher Hospital in Burlington, the hospital that later became the University of Vermont Medical Center. Photo: Tichnor Bros., public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The unions representing support staff and technical professionals at the University of Vermont Medical Center have reached a tentative, two-year agreement with the hospital, AFT-Vermont announced Tuesday, a step that should keep Vermont’s largest hospital from a strike union members had authorized only days earlier.
Details of the deal, which still has to be ratified, will stay private until members vote on the new contracts, Vermont Public reported. Two AFT locals and hospital leaders have been bargaining since April over the pay and working conditions of roughly 3,300 employees in hundreds of jobs.
Job security and minimum staffing levels were the main sticking points, according to the union. Members across the University of Vermont Health system have seen three rounds of layoffs in two years, AFT told Vermont Public.
On Friday, union leaders said 82 percent of those who voted had authorized a strike. That vote, by itself, did not start a work stoppage. It did give the bargaining team the ability to call a five-day walkout with 10 days’ notice.
“We’re taking a stand against the continued destruction of our staffing levels, of being asked to do more with less,” Jacob Berkowitz, president of UVMMC Support Staff United, said in an interview after the vote. He said wage concessions had already been offered and that the unions were waiting for movement on job security.
Hospital officials, in the same report, said they had proposed raising wages by at least 10 percent over three years, at a cost of about $20 million, and that the union’s pay proposals would cost roughly the same amount in half the time. Spokesperson Phil Rau said the medical center believed the sides could still avoid a strike and finalize a contract.
In a statement Tuesday, UVMMC CEO Stephen Leffler said he was “grateful to our union partners for their collaboration and commitment to working with us.”
“Months of thoughtful work went into reaching this agreement and we look forward to building on the productive discussions that focus on supporting our people, providing high-quality care for our patients and our shared commitment to addressing the affordability challenges facing all Vermonters,” Leffler said.
The hospital has been under pressure from regulators and lawmakers to bring prices down. In the Oct. 2 report, Vermont Public wrote that Leffler had recently told regulators he estimated the medical center might lose a combined $150 million this year and next. In Tuesday’s story, the same outlet reported that he had recently told regulators the hospital would likely lose about $75 million this year.
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