The Chief Leader

EMS Unions Bound For Arbitration In Contract Stalemate

May 9 , 2008

By ARI PAUL
The two Emergency Medical Service responders' unions received confirmation April 30 that they will head to arbitration with the city after contracts talks stalled.

Tom Eppinger, who as president of Local 3621 of District Council 37 represents EMS officers, said that the city had not responded to his union's demand for pay parity with other uniformed agencies and an alternative work schedule that would give EMS employees more days off while working longer tours.

Stresses Job's Importance

"Our main job is to take care of the sick and injured," Mr. Eppinger said. "We deal with some of the sickest people: tuberculosis, AIDS, measles, everything. EMS is as valuable as a child's education, a police officer protecting you from a crime, a firefighter protecting you from a fire and having your garbage picked up."

He said that the arbitration process was expected to start at the end of the summer and that he was confident his union could persuade an arbitration panel that his members were underpaid. The main problem that has resulted, he has said, is that EMS suffers from high attrition because members seek jobs in other agencies or use EMS as a stepping-stone for a more-lucrative career as a Firefighter.

After five years, a Firefighter receives a base salary of $68,475, a Paramedic earns $50,501, and an EMT earns $39,179, according to the FDNY Web site. (Firefighters are working under a pact that has raised their pay more than 8 percent since the EMS pacts expired.) The starting salary for a Paramedic is $37,346, and it is $27,295 for an EMT.

Lieut. Ralph Mustillo, who has been with EMS for 19 years, has always hoped that the city would raise salaries, but after finding out the two unions were headed to arbitration last week, he said, "I'm starting to lose that positive feeling."

'Not Taking Care of Us'

"It just ruins their day," he said of his fellow members. "It's the fact that the city has not acknowledged us and not taken care of us."

The contract covering the two bargaining units expired on June 30, 2006, and they have been operating under the terms of that agreement since then.

"We need to establish that we're deserving of the pay that we should be earning and that our job is dangerous," Mr. Eppinger said. "We deserve exactly what everybody gets."

Mr. Eppinger's union will argue its case before an arbitration panel along with Local 2507 of DC 37, which represents Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians.

'Still Willing to Talk'

"What we're going to do before the panel is put forward a case on behalf of the members of the EMS service for employment terms that are more suitable to the work they do than they have now," said Local 2507 spokesman Bob Ungar. "And we continue to maintain that if the city were to come forward in time with a more reasonable stance about continuing to negotiate in good faith then we'll consider that at that point, but unfortunately, to date, it's our belief that good faith negotiations have broken down."

Mr. Ungar added, "We regret the move. We regret that it has to be done, but we'll do what we have to do."