UVM Medical Center nurses set strike date | Healthcare | Seven Days

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• Colin Flanders ©️ Seven days
• Deb Snell at a press conference last month

Nurses at the University of Vermont Medical Center will go on strike for five days starting July 12 unless the hospital agrees to a new contract with higher wage increases.

The Vermont Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals announced in a press release that it had set a strike date to protest “numerous unfair labor practices,” in addition to complaints about the hospital’s collective bargaining process.

“The hospital pays people a lot of money to do their numbers, and they don’t have enough respect for their nurses to show up (and) explain why they don’t think it’s worth it for the hospital to recruit nurses, retain them and make sure they can afford to live here,” Deb Snell, president of the Vermont Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals, said in the release.

The announcement does not necessarily mean a strike will occur. Unions are required by law to give 10 days’ notice of work stoppages, and both sides have scheduled two more labor negotiations before the nurses’ contract expires on July 9. But the latest gesture brings Vermont’s largest hospital one step closer to its second strike in six years.

The contract dispute is primarily about compensation.

The hospital has said it is offering a 17 percent raise compared to a planned three-year contract, while the union is demanding a 46 percent increase. Both have indicated they are open to compromise, but it was not immediately clear whether the final days of negotiations dramatically changed the offers.

The union announced that it would hold a press conference on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the impending strike.

This story will be updated.