Author: Keith Brunner

This commentary is by Kenan Avdibegovic of South Burlington and Jordan Bushway of Georgia, UVM Medical Center staff members who are part of the Support Staff United bargaining team. As UVM Medical Center employees, the past few years have been extremely difficult as we’ve worked diligently to run our region’s largest hospital. We worked through…

Support staff at the Community Health Centers of Burlington (CHCB) voted yesterday to join Community Health United, part of AFT Vermont [1]. Support staff cited improved wages, fair and consistent pay scales, and safe staffing as key issues prompting the organizing drive. The union and CHCB administration maintained a high degree of respect and collaboration…

Montpelier – Over five hundred unionized nurses and health professionals in Vermont called on state leaders Tuesday to address the healthcare staffing crisis by making substantial investments in the healthcare workforce. [1] “Nurses and healthcare professionals have stepped up to serve our communities during the pandemic,” reads the petition delivered to state leaders on Tuesday. “Yet…

Ellen Kaye, Rachel Wallace-Brodeur and Alison Nihart are co-lead negotiators and staff members at the University of Vermont. Their OpEd was published in VTDigger. Chronic understaffing at the University of Vermont, caused by years of wage compression, pay inequities and mismanagement, is creating unreasonable workloads for staff and making it more and more difficult for…

This commentary is by Linda Olson, a professor at Castleton University and vice president for higher education of AFT Vermont. It was published in VTDigger. I have been a faculty member at Castleton University and union officer for close to 30 years. During that time, I have witnessed a troubling legislative disinvestment in public higher…

This OpEd by Deb Snell was published in the VTDigger, Brattleboro Reformer, and Caledonian Record. I work as a registered nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at UVM Medical Center, where I also serve as the president of our union. For almost two years, my colleagues and I have lived with the daily heartbreak and…