3,300 Hospital Workers Just Voted to Strike

Burlington's largest employer just got a wake-up call from its own workforce.

Two UVM Medical Center unions — representing 3,300 support staff, lab techs, schedulers, and nursing assistants — voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike on Friday. Eighty-two percent of voting members said yes. They've been bargaining since April, and the hospital just handed down its "last, best and final" offer.

What's at stake isn't just pay. The unions want a real say over staffing levels while the hospital network pushes through layoffs and restructuring. Nobody has filed the 10-day strike notice yet, so there's no walkout date — union leaders say the vote is meant to force serious negotiations, not empty the wards.

But make no mistake: 3,300 people walking out of the state's largest hospital would touch nearly every family in the region. The nurses aren't part of this — their contract runs another year — but everyone else who keeps the building running just drew a line.

Watch this space. The next move is the hospital's.