Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Central Vermont Medical Center Support Staff Votes to Join Union

Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Support staff at Central Vermont Medical Center (CVMC) overwhelmingly voted last week to join the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Vermont.

This unit will cover licensed nursing assistants, mental health technicians, phlebotomists, front desk staff and food service workers across CVMC’s locations—including the hospital, 27 community-based medical practices and a nursing facility. The resounding election victory comes just over a year after CVMC nurses and technical staff also joined the state chapter of AFT. Core issues for these invaluable workers are largely based around lack of employment protections other hospital personnel have, the need for safer patient-to-staff ratios, and demands for higher wages and better benefits.

“We are passionate about our jobs, and we value being in service to our central Vermont community, so we are hoping to work collaboratively with the CVMC administration to come to mutually beneficial agreements that will impact our community positively,” said Spencer Starr, a patient service specialist and organizing committee member.