Valley News – Nurses end strike, announce tentative agreement with UVM Medical Center

A union representing nearly 2,000 nurses at the University of Vermont Medical Center has called off its strike plan after reaching a tentative agreement with hospital administration, it announced late Wednesday night.

The Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals announced in a press release that the hospital had agreed to a 23% pay raise for its nurses over three years – the largest pay increase since the union was formed 21 years ago.

Over the course of those three years, the agreement would also increase the top pay level by three levels, making nurses eligible for further pay increases.

The union had originally demanded a 46 percent raise, but the administration offered only 17 percent. These figures already included three annual raises of 2 percent each that had already been promised to most nurses.

Unsatisfied with the administration’s subsequent offer to raise wages by 20 percent, the union announced plans on Tuesday for a five-day strike that was to have begun on July 12. On Wednesday evening, it withdrew the strike announcement.

In a statement Thursday, Annie Mackin, chief spokeswoman for UVM Health Network, wrote that the hospital “is very pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals on wages in the new three-year contract we are negotiating for our nursing staff.”

The two sides plan to resolve the remaining points of the contract in a final round of negotiations on Monday. The entire union would then vote on the agreement.