Nurses and UVM Medical Center reach tentative agreement to avert strike | Healthcare | Seven Days

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• University of Vermont Medical Center

Nurses at the University of Vermont Medical Center have called off their upcoming strike after reaching a tentative agreement with the hospital on proposed wage increases.

The union had threatened a five-day strike starting July 12 if the hospital did not offer higher wages under a new three-year contract. Late Wednesday night, the union said it had withdrawn its strike notice after the hospital agreed to a 23 percent pay increase for nurses over the term of the contract.

That’s half the 46 percent increase the union demanded when it made negotiations public last month, but still more than the 17 percent the hospital originally proposed. The hospital will also add three additional “steps” to the top end of its pay scale so the most experienced nurses can continue to receive annual raises.

On Monday, July 8, the two sides will meet again to work out final details before the contract is put to a vote by the union’s 1,900 members.

If ratified, it would be the largest pay increase since the union was formed more than two decades ago, said Deb Snell, president of the Vermont Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals.

“They went up, we went down, and at the end of the day we had to do what was best for all of our members, not just the people at the top or the bottom,” Snell said in an interview.

The agreement prevents the hospital’s second strike in six years, which authorities estimate would have cost more than $10 million.

The hospital management initially did not comment on the preliminary deal.