(PORTSIDE), Kristen Fountain, February 13, 2023
The Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, already the state’s largest affiliation representing some 2,500 health care workers, will roughly double in size by bringing 2,200 more support staff under representation.
Support and technical staff employed by the University of Vermont Medical Center voted overwhelmingly this week to unionize, joining the hospital’s nurses and other technicians as part of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals.
More than 1,300 people participated in the voting, which was run by representatives of the National Labor Relations Board over three days at the UVM Medical Center’s main campus and in a cafeteria at the Fanny Allen campus. The vote results, 997-163 for support staff and 123-18 for technical staff, were announced by the union late Friday afternoon.
“The energy in the building is very excited,” said Jacob Berkowitz, a member of the 70-person union organizing committee and a staffing office specialist at the hospital. After 11 months of effort to organize, “to finally have that union and to win in such a strong fashion, it feels great,” he said.
Read More: Portside