When you call 911, the operator asks: “Do you need police, fire, or medical?” But when payday comes, EMS workers are treated very differently than their fellow first responders because the city still refuses to recognize EMS as a uniformed emergency service. For years, the city deflected on addressing the need for FDNY EMS wage hikes by arguing they could only come about through collective bargaining, obscuring their own role in resisting wage hikes and insinuating EMS workers were only underpaid because they were bad at organizing. We have all the proof we need: Under FDNY, it’s been too easy for the city to ignore the needs of EMS workers. In order to guarantee that EMS first responders get the protections and benefits they need going forward, the city must undo the failed merger and give EMS its own agency. This victory will make a real difference for New York City’s street doctors, but it’s not enough. Last month, in the culmination of a years-long hard-fought battle, DC 37 was able to help FDNY EMS secure a historic wage raise through collective bargaining. If the way a city spends its money directly reflects its values, then this colossal wage gap sends a clear but terrible message: rank-and-file EMS workers - most of whom are women and people of color - are second-class first responders. For a full-time worker, that amounts to barely above legal minimum wage. Meanwhile, an EMT would need to work 20 years to bring home $75,000. After five years on the job, a firefighter can bring home more than $100,000 annually with holiday pay and overtime. But medically-trained EMS workers, who save the lives of distressed New Yorkers day in and day out, start at only $33,320 per year. Indeed, the starting salary for a NYPD officer is $42,500, while a firefighter makes $45,196 to start. But the reality could not be further from the truth: EMS workers have historically been paid way less than rookie cops and firefighters. Based on their obvious necessity, you would think EMS workers would be among the highest-paid civil servants in our city. Without blinking an eye, these frontline street doctors worked 16-hour shifts and responded to more than 7,000 emergency 911 calls in a single day. In those dark and early days of the virus, EMS workers were the very first responders risking their lives as hundreds upon hundreds of infected and contagious New Yorkers tragically died each day. If you’ve been following me, you know I’ve spoken about this many times, even before the COVID-19 hit New York.ĮMS workers have always been everyday heroes, but the enduring pandemic has reminded us all of the extraordinary work they do. Unfortunately, this arrangement has failed EMS workers in myriad ways. What they probably don’t think about are the approximately 4,800 EMS workers - EMTs, EMS trainees, paramedics and officers - and you can’t really blame them given the way the department’s Bureau of Emergency Medical Services has been treated by the City of New York.Įver since 1996, as the result of a well-intentioned agency consolidation to streamline services between FDNY and New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., EMS workers have fallen under FDNY’s umbrella. When the average New Yorker thinks about the mighty Fire Department, they probably think of heroic firefighters, burning buildings, billowing smoke, big red loud firetrucks, and maybe even a firefighter rescuing a kitten stuck in a tree. Today, in the City Council, I am introducing legislation that seeks to undo that merger and reimagine a standalone Department of Emergency Medical Services to finally give EMS workers the respect they’ve long deserved. It has been 25 years since the Emergency Medical Service was merged with FDNY.
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