This story was updated at 4:51 p.m.
Nurses at the University of Vermont Medical Center plan to strike next week if they’re unable to reach a deal on a new contract with the hospital administration, union representatives announced Tuesday.
The strike would last five days — beginning July 12 — barring an agreement reached before then. Hospital officials said Tuesday morning they are putting a contingency plan in place, including hiring a strike company to provide temporary nurses.
It would be the second strike in recent years at Vermont’s largest hospital, following a two-day one in 2018.
The Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals represents nearly 2,000 nurses at UVM Medical Center. For the past three months, they have been in contract negotiations with the hospital, asking for significant pay increases. The hospital has countered with raise offers the union says are “far away” from where they need to be and has not been willing to move enough on them during bargaining sessions, said union President Deb Snell.
Annie Mackin, chief spokesperson for the UVM Health Network, which includes the UVM Medical Center and two other Vermont hospitals, detailed some of the hospital’s contingency plans in a press release Tuesday morning.
“UVM Medical Center has put in motion plans to bring in professional external staff, and if needed, reschedule certain elective procedures. Patients will be contacted by their provider if they will be impacted,” she wrote, adding that all emergency services will remain operational and the hospital will have in place a “24/7 incident command structure.”
The two sides could still agree on a contract in their two remaining bargaining sessions on Wednesday and Monday. The current contract expires on July 9. However, the union’s announcement fulfills the federal requirement of 10 days advance notice before any nursing strike.
Last week, the union said it was asking for 40% raises, while the hospital was offering an 11% increase. The hospital, on the other hand, said those numbers were 46% and 17%, respectively — figures that include three 2% annual raises already promised to most nurses.
Mackin said in the Tuesday release that as of Monday’s bargaining session, both sides had moved toward the middle. The hospital is now offering a 20% raise over three years, while the union is proposing 31%, she wrote, including the 6% from the annual raises.
“We have put forward a proposal that is competitive, serious, and designed to continue the progress we’ve been making on recruitment and retention, and we have adjusted that proposal as we work to reach an agreement,” UVM Medical Center President Stephen Leffler wrote in the release.
However, Snell said at a Tuesday press conference that the hospital’s adjustments thus far have been inadequate, noting that the union’s team reduced its offer by more than the hospital increased its offer.
“We have definitely made concessions to our proposal,” Snell said. “Some of our members were not happy about it, but we knew to be in good faith bargaining, we needed to make some movement. We did. And we’re not seeing the same kind of movement from UVMMC.”
In a press conference later Tuesday afternoon, Leffler said that their 20% offer is limited as the top end of what they are able to fit into their overall budget for next year. The hospital submits its budget to the Green Mountain Care Board later this week, he said.
“What we have on the table right now is what we can manage within the budget,” Leffler said. “Anything beyond what we’re submitting would either require increased commercial rates or decreases in services and programs at the medical center. The expense would have to come from something else.”
The union has said that nurses need significant raises to be able to afford to live in the Burlington area and that those in turn could help the hospital’s recruitment and retention, allowing them to reduce its reliance on traveling nurses.
Leffler said last week that the union and the hospital have the same goal in that respect, but they don’t have the money to pay for raises in the 40% range. He estimated the union’s ask would cost $300 million over the next three years and would require an increase in charges to commercial insurers.
The hospital’s offer last week included a 2% bonus upon ratification if the contract was agreed upon by Friday, money that Mackin said is now being used to pay to a strike company and is off the bargaining table.
“UVM Medical Center has contracted with a nursing staffing agency to bring in contingency nurses to join teams throughout the hospital — both in its inpatient and outpatient settings,” Mackin wrote. “Now that the hospital has been served with a 10-day strike notice, the hospital must begin significantly increasing payments to this firm.”
Leffler said at Tuesday’s press conference that the costs of hiring around 500 temporary nurses and giving them transportation and lodging, which the hospital will have to pay within the next few days, could land anywhere between $5 million and $8 million. Factoring in delays to care that the hospital may have to institute with a limited staff, Leffler estimated the total cost of a five-day strike to be somewhere between $10 million and $15 million.
The authorization is for up to five days of work stoppage, but after another 10 days of notice, nurses could return to the picket line for another five days if a contract is still not reached, nurse and bargaining team member Eisha Lichtenstein previously told VTDigger.
“This was not an easy decision,” Snell said Tuesday about the strike plans. “It was emotional. It was extremely difficult. But we know we have to do what’s best for our nurses and our community. And we know the proposals we have on the table are the ones that are going to get nurses here and keep nurses here.”