University of Vermont Medical Center support staff vote to authorize strike
Thousands of University of Vermont Medical Center support staff have authorized a strike following an official union vote.
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The results of last week's vote were announced on Friday morning. The authorization means members have given union leadership the authority to call for a strike of up to five days.
The union is currently in talks with UVM Health officials in an effort to set an official date to negotiate and see if union members will officially go on strike.
"We do not do this because we want to. We do this because truly, we feel the hospital has left us with no other options," said Nicole DiVita, of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals. "We cannot continue to accept the erosion of current safeguards for ourselves and for our patients."
Union leaders will still need to actually call for a strike and start the legal notification process before staff would actually take to the picket line. For now, the unions said they are still open to negotiating with UVM Medical Center leaders.
NBC5's Charlotte Hancox is in Burlington and will have more on this story when additional information is available.
Union unsatisfied by staffing levels
The union's main focus has been on safe staffing levels.
"We want minimum staffing levels in all departments, and they seem to want to maintain a stranglehold on control of what staffing looks like," said union member Brett Rhodes. "In my experience, having seen what happens when we give them complete control over staffing, it leads to the patients in unsafe, dangerous situations, so we want to maintain a certain level of control over the system on what staffing will look like in the future."
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