Porter Medical Center in Middlebury. Photo courtesy of Porter Medical CenterRoughly 300 workers at Porter Medical Center ratified their first union contract late Saturday after three months of negotiations.Support staff, licensed practical nurses and technical professionals voted overwhelmingly to join the Vermont chapter of the American Federation of Teachers union in March, almost a decade after nurses at the Middlebury hospital unionized. Together those groups of employees represent about half the medical center’s workforce, according to Avery Book, a spokesperson for AFT-Vermont.The contract reached Saturday includes average annual raises of 22% in the first year and agrees to prioritize local staff over travel or temporary workers, according to a press release issued by AFT-Vermont. The three-year contract raises the minimum wage to $20 per hour at the hospital, according to a separate statement issued by Porter Medical Center late Monday, which noted that union employees will enter a new wage scale, organized according to experience.The agreement includes the creation of a staffing team, comprising union workers and management, that will help develop and update staffing guidelines across departments, according to Book. This could help create more equitable staffing assignments, he said.The contract addresses other priority areas such as scheduling, health and safety, urgent pay and on-call pay, according to the medical center.“The new agreements will improve staff well-being, including by strengthening our recruitment and retention, which ultimately benefits our patients,” said Brandi Helm, associate vice president of operations at Porter Medical, in the hospital’s statement.Union workers said they appreciated what they characterized as long-overdue pay upgrades and wage transparency. Liz Willey, a radiologic technologist who has worked at Porter for five years, said in an interview that she is most happy about the raises. “I’m hopeful that this will really make quite a positive change in a lot of people’s lives, mine included.”In the union release, Paige Kernan, who represents the union in the hospital’s pediatrics office, called the contract “life changing for many current Porter employees.” “It will also help attract new, local staff and ensure Porter can continue to care for the surrounding communities,” Kernan said. “This contract means I can start focusing on my future, instead of just trying to survive between paychecks.”AFT-Vermont represents unions at the two other Vermont hospitals within the University of Vermont Health Network.The Porter contract comes two months after University of Vermont Medical Center nurses reached an agreement with hospital administrators on a new contract after months of tense negotiations and a bid to strike.Support and technical staff at the medical center voted to unionize in January 2023, followed by nurses and technical staff at Central Vermont Medical Center who voted in August 2023 to join the same union. Read the story on VTDigger here: Support staff at Porter Medical Center approve first union contract.