The lowest paid workers at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will get a $2 an hour raise under the terms of a first union contract that the workers ratified on May 11. The contract covers about 280 workers, including janitors and secretaries.

In June 2025, the workers' elected leaders told the Valley Post, “Despite BMH management spending over $400,000 to hire anti-union consultants and lawyers to oppose our organizing drive, we voted by a two-thirds majority to unionize because we’re deeply committed to livable wages for all, a workplace based on respect and fairness, and safe staffing to allow us to provide the highest quality care.”

The contract raises the minimum pay rate to $18 immediately and at least $19 in October 2026. A of May 10, 2026, the lowest paid workers made $17 an hour. Workers also won an improved disciplinary process, and stronger health and safety protections, including a staffed metal detector.

“This contract represents a huge amount of work from BHU (union) members across the hospital who stayed committed through a long bargaining process,” said Kelsey Bean, a BMH Phlebotomist and a member of the union's bargaining team. She spoke on May 14, 2026. Phlebotomists draw blood for tests and other purposes.

The workers have a web site at https://aftvermont.org/about-us

*********

On May 14 in Greenfield, about 21 people were at a union rally to support the nurses at the Greenfield hospital. A photo that the nurses posted on Facebook shows 20 people. One of their supporters took the photo. The nurses have a web site at www.MassNurses.org.

*********

In Amherst, about 80 acres of farmland would probably be protected if a group succeeds in re-opening Hampshire College. Last month, the New York Times reported that the college will close permanently.

"We certainly have an interest in preserving the farmland," a spokesperson for the group told the Valley Post on May 12. The group has a web site at https://HampshireNext.org. The farmland is part of the campus.

*********

On May 7, the popular news site VTdigger published an op-ed article by the director of the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast. It asked the Vermont legislature to effectively give loggers money by exempting them from the sales tax. Zack Porter runs a Vermont-based group called Standing Trees. It works to protect forests on New England's public lands.

On May 13, Porter told the Valley Post, “Standing Trees does not have a position on that legislation.... The challenges facing the timber industry are not about the supply of timber, as this op-ed makes clear. There are many ways that we can and should help private landowners and small businesses produce sustainable and ecologically-mindful wood products while also protecting more of Vermont's public forests so that they can grow old.”