Brattleboro LPN's

BMH nurses vote in favor of union;
First LPN bargaining unit in state

By ANNIE HUNDLEY
Brattleboro Reformer

BRATTLEBORO -- A group of nurses at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital overwhelmingly voted to unionize Thursday night, amid a management dispute about the vote. Twenty licensed practical nurses will be represented by the United Professions of Vermont after the 14-to-2 vote is certified by the National Labor Relations Board.

The four LPNs who did not vote were either on vacation or abstained. To approve unionizing, there had to be 50 percent plus one casting a yes vote. The LPNs' vote Thursday approved unionizing by about 87 percent.

"This is the first LPN bargain unit that has ever been organized in the state," said Philip Fiermonte, executive director of the union.

The fate of five additional votes, which were ultimately sealed and not counted, remains uncertain. According to Mark Herman May, an LPN at the hospital, management disapproved of the five nurses voting, saying that they are employees of a separate entity.

BMH spokeswoman Barbara Gentry noted that the vote has not yet been certified.

But Fiermonte said, "I have no reason to believe the NLRB will not certify the vote. I think that will be a routine process."

At some point, either through negotiations or by the NLRB, the status of those five nurses will have to be decided, Fiermonte said.

For May, the yes vote is a huge step many months in the making. For years, he said, LPNs have benefited from the negotiations between registered nurses and management, but have been ostracized from the actual process of making requests, negotiating and voting on contracts. Registered nurses at the Brattleboro hospital have been organized since 1983.

"As a nursing staff most of us feel that this will further unite us as one staff," May said. "When we're working together we feel that we work together as equals ... That's a good way to feel when you're working."

Just getting to the vote, May said, was a complex and time-consuming process, leaving the LPNs little time to discuss what they plan to specifically request once negotiations begin.

Once the vote is certified, which is expected to happen within a week, the new bargaining union will elect a president, vice president, treasurer and secretary. After that, the nurses will write its constitution and begin to draft its first contract proposal.

According to Fiermonte, bargaining rights will allow the nurses to address many pressing issues, such as creating a working environment that emphasizes quality of care.

"Frontline caregivers are finding it more and more difficult to provide the care they were trained to give," Fiermonte said.

More than the important issue of improving care, May said that the simple right to approach management as equals is a major improvement.

"It's a huge step for us. I don't think that anyone would have even considered making this move if we did not feel it would be a positive step. This is a community hospital and I think that really feeling that your voice counts pulls you further into the community and gives you a greater sense of pride."

Three of Vermont's 14 hospitals are unionized: Brattleboro Memorial, Copley Hospital in Morrisville and Rutland Regional Medical Center, according to the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.

The Vermont Federation of Nurses also is working to organize the 1,200 registered nurses at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Fiermonte said.