The nurses' union at the University of Vermont Medical Center officially went on strike at 7 a.m. Thursday. A sizable crowd of nurses, most wearing red shirts and holding signs and cups of coffee, gathered outside the hospital’s main entrance by 6:10 a.m.
The University of Vermont Medical Center and its nurses' union can agree on one thing — patients should still feel comfortable entering the hospital amidst a nursing strike planned for Thursday and Friday. The union and hospital still do not agree on nursing wages and were scheduled to engage in a last-ditch bargaining session Wednesday afternoon.
The University of Vermont Medical Center has postponed 68 elective procedures that require complex surgical teams in advance of a nursing strike planned for Thursday and Friday, July 12 and 13.
Nurses at Vermont's largest medical center worked without a contract Monday while their union continues to negotiate for a pay raise with hospital administrators. Both sides said they hope to reach a deal and avert a threatened nursing strike scheduled for July 12 and 13.
The agreement is tentative and subject to a vote of the union’s membership on Thursday. Local 5098 of the UNAP represents more than 2,400 nurses, therapists, technologists and other professionals at Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital.