Vermont Workers' Center

07/22/2026

Organized by the Vermont Medical Society, this week 3,000 clinicians signed a letter to Governor Phil Scott to protect maternity care.

Labor and delivery, along with all forms of care, should be sustained as an essential public good, not treated like a product line in a grocery store expected to turn a profit or be discontinued.

Read the letter: https://vtmd.org/client_media/files/Open%20Letter%20from%20Vermont%20Clinicians.pdf?

07/21/2026

1. Call Governor Scott’s Office at 802-828-3333

2. Leave a message: Your name, town, and why the state should step in to protect labor and delivery at BMH and around the state.

3. If you have time: Leave a similar message with Secretary of Human Services Jenney Samuelson: 802-241-0440, #9

4. Add your name here to track how many calls we’ve made: tinyurl.com/BMHCalls

07/21/2026

Take action today to save birth at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital!
Call Gov. Scott: 802-828-3333
Details in the comments.

07/19/2026

This month, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital leadership announced plans to close the hospital’s birthing center in six to nine months, citing consistent financial losses.

In response, hundreds of healthcare workers and community members have rallied to keep it open, warning that lives are at risk and arguing that birthing care should be sustained as a public good.

States like Oregon have used state funds to shore up labor and delivery care. But Governor Scott has so far refused to step in to save the birthing center.

In fact, the Governor’s office has advised people to give birth in the BMH emergency room if they can’t make it to another hospital. This would mean asking people in active labor to drive ninety minutes to a facility that may not even accept their Vermont insurance.

This Tuesday, we'll be calling the governor to ask him to save Brattleboro's birthing center.

Tell us in the comments: what do you think is the best way to convince the governor that babies shouldn't need to be born in the emergency room?

07/17/2026

Vermont’s healthcare downward spiral is the result of policy choices made by political leaders of both major parties.

Rather than implement public financing to stabilize hospitals, make payments more equitable, and improve our bargaining position vis a vis profiteers like big Pharma, lawmakers spent the last decade chasing false market-based solutions that wasted time and transferred $100 million in Medicaid funding to a for-profit company that has since gone belly-up.

We don’t want to hear politicians wring their hands and tell us there's nothing we can do, or that it's all the fault of Washington, DC. Either we treat healthcare as a public good, using state funds to keep departments running while we lay the foundation for universal, public financing and build out non-hospital care alternatives, or we accept a future where only wealthy people living near UVM or Dartmouth can access adequate care. Which side are they on?

Springfield Hospital plans to close its long-running adult day program in September, citing financial reasons. It's one of only 10 adult day programs for people with cognitive and physical disabilities currently operating in the state.

07/17/2026

Governor Scott just told expectant parents in Brattleboro that if they 'do not wish' to drive 90 minutes while they are in labor to an out-of-state hospital that may not accept their insurance, they can deliver at the emergency room.

It seems Governor Scott doesn't know what birth looks like.

Vermont healthcare workers, parents, community members, and advocates sure do. And we are in the streets and on the phones.

Join us for a call-in day this coming Tuesday 7/21 to tell Governor Scott that healthcare - in our towns, with our own providers, where we can safely have our babies - is a human right.

Details to follow!

07/16/2026

Ellen Schwartz from the Vermont Workers Center, one of the organizers of Tuesday’s event, was collecting signatures from attendees. She said that the proposed closing of Birthing Center “is just a symptom of the bigger crisis in rural healthcare in the U.S.”

Across the country, she said, small hospitals are struggling to stay open, leaving huge service gaps.

Schwarz also said that Gov. Phil Scott’s proposal to allow insurers to sell high-deductible policies in Vermont would end up costing hospitals even more money when families can’t cover a $10,000 deductible before their insurance would kick in.

BRATTLEBORO-About 100 people showed up in front of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) Tuesday morning in a continuation of community actions in support of keeping its Birthing Center open. After about 45 minutes of speeches from supporters and healthcare workers, many went into the hospital to atte...

07/16/2026

State intervention into collapsing maternity care would not be without precedent. Oregon recently announced a $37 million bailout for rural labor and delivery services. But Scott’s office has been firm: no such bailout is forthcoming for Brattleboro.

“One institution, one organization is not going to be able to solve this problem,” BMH board chair Chloe Leary said Tuesday. “It is a question about whether Vermont — all of Vermont — is willing to find a sustainable way to pay for maternity care.”

07/15/2026

On Tuesday, a crowd of nurses, healthcare workers and providers, former patients and community members gathered outside the hospital for a rally before the public meeting. Rally speakers said they believe closing Brattleboro's birthing center will have catastrophic consequences.

After announcing plans to close its birthing center because of financial reasons, the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital held a public meeting Tuesday where hospital staff and community members shared their concerns

07/15/2026

VWC President Karen, who gave birth at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, speaks at at yesterday’s rally to save the birthing center before delivering hundreds of petitions we collected this spring to the BMH board of directors.