You would think that a Progressive City, with a Democratic Mayor, and a fully Democratic City Council would be a Union’s friend.
Nope. Cleveland city has been fighting the EMS Union over its contract and now opposes a judges order to follow the contract and is appealing the order to provide treatment for PTSD to EMS workers.
All this week EMS workers from across the nation joined marches and attending meetings with the City. The result was a few Council members saying “they were concerned.” The rest were quite or stated what NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said about the pay gap between EMS and Fire/Police “EMS Work Is Different”.
The work conditions for EMS nation wide are not very good. California voted on Proposition 11 to deny EMS workers breaks and lunch time by 62%! The average EMS worker sits in their ambulance for the entire shift other than when they are treating patients. They work in some of the worst places and conditions. Often required to be ready for the next call an average of 20 minutes after arriving at the Hospital. (Cleveland EMS has a 12 min standard, Louisville Metro EMS has 30 min, Denver area has 10 to 20 min based on agency).
National average pay for a Paramedic is $14.50 an hour. It is a “joke” in the EMS world that it takes a full time side job to live on the EMS pay.
What makes Cleveland even worse, is EMS has the highest rates of PTSD out side of combat troops. Yet they are looking at the bottom line over human lives.
The side that opposes treating EMS workers as human argue that covering PTSD treatment would open the City up to abuse of being treated, would cost too much and strain a budget that “already losses money every year”.
This is also why the city exempted EMS from the minimum wage rule they have. A part time greater at a city community center is guaranteed a minimum of $15 an hour, but EMT’s start at $10.50. Full time. (12 to 16 hour shifts).
Because “EMS is losing money”. See Cleveland EMS cost the CIty $30 million, but only brought in $14 million in billing. Strange that is not applied to the Police department. They cost the city over $200 million but “brought in” less than $1 million.
911 EMS is a public service and should not be expected to “turn a profit” before taking care of workers, buying new equipment (won’t go into recent events where ambulances stopped working on the way to the hospital or caught on fire), or allow non-emergency department transport destinations. This seems to be a bi-partisan view of EMS.
If your in the Cleveland area, please join with the effort to treat EMS as humans. If you live any place else, find out how your city treats its EMS providers. (some have privatized, some are part of the Fire Service, some are “third service” and a few are hospital based. Out side of the cities many are volunteers and great people to get to know.)