Community Support For Nurses
We have the support of our community
The following are statements of support from prominent organizations in Burlington and Vermont.
United Academics
United Academics supports the UVMMC nurses in their efforts to keep the hospital’s resources in patient care. This effort mirrors our efforts to keep UVM’s resources focused on academics, and not on more executives and executive amenities.
VFNHP Technical professionals
The VFNHP Technical professionals stand in solidarity with our nurse colleagues. We fully support the right of nurses to strike in an effort to improve staffing, patient care and the Recruitment and retention of top nursing talent. We strongly encourage UVMMC to settle a fair contract now. One that puts patients before profits. Our Nurses and patients deserve nothing less. In solidarity VFNHP Technical professionals 5221
Burlington Progressive Party
The Burlington Progressives stand in solidarity with the nurses of the UVMMC. Their strike is an act of selfless defiance against the greed and apathy of the Medical Center’s executives, and a stand for the rights of working people of Vermont to safe healthcare and a just workplace. We will stand alongside them at the picket lines until they negotiate the contract they need and deserve.
For months, the women and men who are the first line of care for patients at Vermont’s largest hospital have been trying to reach an agreement that will stem the high turnover and staffing shortages brought about by years of non-competitive pay. At a time when the hospital’s CEO earns nearly $2.2 million a year, it is disgraceful that the members of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals aren’t even paid the same as others within the UVM Health Network.
While we hope that the hospital will take today’s strike notice seriously enough to reach a fair settlement with their hard-working nurses and health professionals, make no mistake: we will be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our sisters and brothers if they must walk the picket lines.
Like educators, nurses and health professionals put others first every day. We implore the hospital’s management to do right by them and work with them to make UVM Medical Center a better place to work.
Don Tinney
High school English teacher | Vermont-NEA President
UE
UE, a union which represents more than 1000 workers in Vermont at UVM, Fairbanks Scales, Hunger Mountain Co-op, City Market and Flynn box office, CVOEO, CSAC, and NEKCA, and the Vermont Service Center. Vermont cannot continue to allow business and profit to outweigh the needs of the community and those who serve us with their labor. We support, without reservation, the nurses’ struggle for competitive pay, livable wages, and safe staffing. The administration must settle a fair contract and start spending their millions where it really matters, or we will see them on the picket lines. Solidarity forever.
The Union Nurses at Porter Medical Center
The Union Nurses at Porter Medical Center offer our support and stand in solidarity with our union colleagues at UVM Medical Center in their fight for safe staffing and in-network parity. As fellow nurses we recognize that a fair and equitable contract speaks to the needs of our patients, community and fellow staff members. We stand together in the fight for high quality healthcare. for all Vermonters. In Solidarity, Porter Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, AFT Local 5753
Vermont-NEA
Vermont-NEA urges hospital, whose CEO earns more than $2.2 million a year, to reach fair settlement with women and men who are on the front lines of patient care
Teachers of Vermont
The women and men who spend their days teaching Vermont’s children stand in solidarity with their sisters and brothers who put patient care first every day at UVM Medical Center.
As our sisters and brothers at the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) enter their final days of negotiations prior to a strike, the members of NYSNA at CVPH join with them in steadfast solidarity and offer the following statement of unqualified support:
Recognizing the we all work ultimately for the same employer, and understanding that the mutual interests of our professions, our patients, and our communities require our ongoing vigilance and advocacy, all nurses and health professionals in the University of Vermont Health Network should unite now for a fair contract for the UVMMC nurses.
As we have demonstrated throughout our history at CVPH, long-term devotion of union members to advancing the interests of patients and caregivers through collective bargaining and employee empowerment is a basic necessity for improving health and working conditions for all, and we now urge all nurses of the Vermont Federation on Nurse Professionals, Local 5521, to stand together, as we stand with them.
NYSNA Executive Committee
On behalf of the members at CVPH
The International Socialist Organization
The International Socialist Organization commends the nurses at the UVM medical center for taking a stand that our dignity, our labor, and our worth will no longer be sacrificed for profits before patients. A small clique of very wealthy hospital bosses shouldn’t dictate our healthcare. We will stand with the nurses on the picket line for a just contract and for working conditions worthy of the most trusted profession in the U.S.
The Economic Justice Task Force of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington
The Economic Justice Task Force of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington supports the UVMMC Nurses because what they want and need is what we all need. We believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person and justice, equity and compassion in human relations so their work for competitive wages to recruit & retain high quality nurses, a $15/hr minimum wage for all hospital employees, and safe staffing ratios is the work to put the needs of the community and patients over the greed of those running UVMMC, whose priorities are executive compensation and expansion projects. The Nurses’ struggle is our struggle to Counter Growing Inequality and Promote an Economy of Health & Caring and we are proud to Stand with them!!
The Burlington local of the Democratic Socialists of America
The Burlington local of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) gladly voices our support for the Nurses of UVM Medical Center in their fight for the dignity of their patients, themselves, and our community. This administration’s laser-like focus on rapidly expanding its healthcare monopoly, while depressing wages for nurses and providing lavish pay raises for themselves in the process, exposes a gross mishandling of our healthcare system. Who pays the price for this? Not the administration, apparently.
We strongly condemn their lack of action and the disrespect that they have demonstrated in proceedings with the Union. Should they continue to turn their backs on our Nurses, Burlington DSA will be on the picket line in solidarity to make sure that UVMMC knows there is a heavy price for betraying our community in their reckless pursuit of profits.
The Burlington Education Association
The Burlington Education Association stands in solidarity with the nurses of the University of Vermont Medical Center. The stand you are taking is so important as you are fighting for all of the people at the Medical Center and will have significant impact on the rest of our community.
The lack of staffing at the Medical Center is a barrier to healthcare for our most vulnerable community members. As you have made clear, the only way to achieve the appropriate level of staffing is to raise wages at the hospital. The way that the UVMMC is forcing these working conditions on our nurses and other workers while making excessive profits is unsafe and disrespectful to our community.
During our strike, many of your members came out and marched with us. You truly have our community’s needs at heart. Keep up the fight for making our community a better place to live.
The Work Continues…
Whether we’re at work, helping alongside our neighbors after a natural disaster or traveling the state offering free health screening clinics and information about health reform, we love our community. And our community has shown us over and over again by turning out by the hundreds during contract campaigns, writing letters, signing petitions, and more to show that they support our many efforts to continue improving quality of patient care.
FAQs
We are a strong union of health care professionals organized to ensure access to high-quality health care for everyone in the communities we serve.