Staff at UVM Health Network’s Plattsburgh hospital reach a contract - vtdigger.org

A University of Vermont Health Network staff member conducts drive-up testing for Covid-19. Courtesy UVMHN

Clinical staff at UVM Health Network's second-largest hospital agreed this week to sign a new two-year contract. On the other side of the lake, at UVM Medical Center, tension persists as staff and management work toward a new contract.  

The employees at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in upstate New York had been working without a contract for the past two years, according to Kristi Barnes, spokesperson for the New York State Nurses Association, the union that represents nurses and support staff at the hospital in Plattsburgh. 

The new contract includes 6% pay raises this year and next year. It also allows workers to keep their existing health insurance and gives members greater involvement in the hospital's ongoing staffing crisis. 

"(W)e are hopeful that this new contract will help us turn the page," registered nurse Kenney Millington said in a statement on Thursday. "Our community deserves safe staffing and essential health care services, and this new contract helps solidify CVPH's commitment to its health care professionals and patients."

Champlain Valley Hospital President Michelle LeBeau called the ratified contract "a great step forward" in a statement Thursday. The contract "offers all of us an opportunity to breathe, return to our core beliefs and a work environment that is supportive, kind and caring," said LeBeau, who is also president of UVM Health Network's Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone, New York. 

Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital, the largest employer in New York's North Country, has been part of the UVM Health Network since 2013. It has more than 300 licensed beds and is the health network's largest hospital outside of Vermont. 

The Plattsburgh hospital is just a ferry ride away from the UVM Medical Center in Burlington, and the two hospitals share clinical staff. 

The Champlain Valley contract was ratified just days after nurses and support staff at the UVM Medical Center accused management of "playing Russian roulette with community care and staff safety."

Members of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, whose local union chapter represents 2,600 UVM Medical Center employees, had expressed serious concerns in the past about staffing. Last February, management approved immediate pay raises for most members of the nurses union ahead of contract negotiations this spring. 

But chapter president Deb Snell said management had also promised additional financial incentives back in February, and later reversed course because of a budget shortfall. The hospital projects it will finish the current fiscal year with a $44 million shortfall. Last month, state regulators allowed the network to increase its service charges by more than $14 million this year, but the hospital network said that wasn't enough to cover the deficit. 

"They (UVM Medical Center management) keep saying, 'Oh, well, no, we don't have the money,'' Snell said on Thursday. "And we're like, well, yes, you do. You're just choosing to prioritize differently than we think you should."

Snell said the raises aren't big enough to stop nurses from leaving the UVM Health Network. At the same time, she said, the hospital is spending much more on expensive temporary staff.  

"We are losing staff," Snell added. "We still have over 300 openings for nurses." 

UVM network spokesperson Annie Mackin reiterated in a statement Thursday that management already gave most union members a raise.

"We were proud to reach agreement on base wage increases of 20% over 18 months, with 10% going into effect in February," she added. 

With the federation's current contract expiring July 9, Snell said both parties have enough time to reach an agreement. 

The unions at UVM Health Network aren't alone in demanding higher pay and better conditions. Workers nationwide have agitated for better conditions amid the pandemic's labor shortages and rising inflation.

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