Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont/Porter Medical Center in Middlebury announced today a new, three-year contract with the union representing the Porter nursing staff that will run through September 30, 2020. The registered nurses of the Porter Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals voted on Thursday to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement, their second contract since organizing in 2013. The contract was reached after four months of negotiations.
From the nurses side, Porter, now affiliated with UVMMC, agreed to establish safe staffing guidelines jointly with its nursing staff by September 2018, which was a focal point of the nurses' campaign. Other issues successfully addressed in these negotiations included tuition assistance, a stronger mentoring and orientation process for new nurses, as well as the establishment of a Nursing Practice Council. Nurses won raises of 8.5 percent over the life of the contract. Additional wage increases recognizing years of experience were also secured.
"This agreement shows the commitment of our members to ensuring that our community gets the best care when they come to the facility," said Alice Leo, president of the nurses' union, "and could not have happened without that community's support."
Leo credited the visible support for safe staffing levels at the hospital, whether in the form of lawn signs, a community delegation to Porter Administration, and other activities, as playing a large role in the negotiations.
"Our members were organized and united. Having folks like Bernie Sanders and David Zuckerman standing up at the Labor Day Rally saying 'safe staffing matters' is a big thing, but I'd be negligent if I didn't stress the impact and difference made by grassroots community support," she said.
“We are very pleased to have successfully concluded these negotiations which I would characterize as a respectful process, where both sides listened to each other to find common ground for determining a fair and reasonable contract for our nurses,” said Porter spokesperson Ron Hallman.
Hallman indicated that there were a total of 11 meetings that occurred from June until the final session on Sunday, September 17, which lasted more than 13 hours.
The new Nursing Practice Council will promote what Porter Chief Nursing Officer Karen Beinhaur calls a “shared governance model” between nurses and administration.
“This new council will have equal representation of nurses and administrators and is intended to promote a collaborative approach to ensuring that we are providing appropriate staffing levels and maintaining the highest quality patient and resident care,” she said.
In addition to providing the nurses with a 2 percent cost of living adjustment annually, Porter will make other market-based wage adjustments during the duration of the contract in recognition of changes in the wage market for nurses, which is consistent with the organization-wide market adjustment program that Porter has in place for all positions.
The new Nurse Practice Council will also help to design another new initiative, which is the creation of a BSN program to provide financial support for nurses who wish to continue their education.
“Porter will be providing extra funds for our nurses who wish to pursue their BSN degree as a way of supporting professional education and providing us with another way of attracting and retaining outstanding nurses throughout our organization,” she said. Other than the new BSN program, other employment benefits for the Porter nurses will be consistent with benefits offered to other Porter staff.
Porter CEO Dr Fred Kniffin said in a statement to all Porter employees: “The hard work has been done to reach an agreement that is fair to everyone. I now invite each of you to join in the ongoing and important work of making Porter the best place we could ever want to work, and the best place we could ever want to be a patient.”
Porter agreed in March 2017 to join the University of Vermont Health Network, which is led by the UVM Medical Center in Burlington
Porter Federation of Nurses and Health Care Professionals is a union representing the Registered Nurses at Porter Medical Center and part of AFT Vermont. In Vermont, American Federation of Teachers represents professionals in health care and higher education. http://vt.aft.org/
Source: Porter Federation of Nurses and Health Care Professionals. Porter Medical Center. 9.22.2017