You guys are right, I can’t say that NEMSA has suddenly turned us in to "professionals" whatever that means today I think that in this day and age the word is somewhat overused.
Does anybody really believe that suddenly because NEMSA has few thousand members that we're all professionals? No and since “professional” doesn’t have a meaningful definition anymore will we ever really know when we’ve reached “professional” status? If an EMT basic gets hired and after 12 weeks of a fire academy is now a “professional” I would like to think that being a fulltime paramedic for 16 years would count for some sort of elevated status. Is a full time “professional” paramedic who also volunteer's for a service on the in their hometown suddenly non-professionals when they volunteer at home?
Getting to your concerns and specifically what has NEMSA does for anybody yet? Some of these improvements will be specific to our area.
1) In less than a week we have twice as many trained stewards as we had with the ATU, with the ATU we had county liaison positions go unfilled for months.
2) NEMSA has created interest in union activities.
3) NEMSA created a message board for our bargaining unit improving communication.
4) NEMSA’s bargaining rules are an improvement over our old ones.
5) There is also more interest in our upcoming contract negotiations than there ever has been.
6) NEMSA has improved our bargaining position because NEMSA already represents the 2 most successful bargaining units in AMR which are also in our region.
7) Communication between bargaining units not only for pay and benefits but for intangibles such as how much facial hair is acceptable in different areas.
8) We aren’t negotiating in a vacuum NEMSA already knows what to expect during negotiations.
9) Locally NEMSA has created interest in unionizing with other local company’s who are just waiting to see how well we do.
10) Strength in numbers, NEMSA has brought in 20% of the AMR workforce in a little over 2 years with more elections this year.
11) The very fact that we’re having this discourse is an improvement over where we were at just a few months ago.
This is not an all inclusive list and it will only continue to grow.
Does this mean every EMT and Paramedic is now a professional or that everybody will earn what San Mateo does? No, but give it a few years we do know that we haven’t gone anywhere with the unions that we’re in now.
As for the cost of living calculators on the internet are of dubious value, Google “the most overpriced cities” and Portland is number 3 behind Seattle and New York. I do know that I make less than every firefighter and nurse that I work with, I think when I intubate, medicate and start 2 IV’s on a patient and hand him off to 5 nurses and a doctor that I should be making more than I am now. I know my career will be longer than my friends at the fire department and they will taking home more money retired than I do working. I’m miffed that after 2 or 3 years firefighters make more than I do after 16.
Give NEMSA a few years if you want but we’re getting in on the ground floor.
Yes, the ATU was a bad union 3 years ago we got a 28% raise, we voted down a 24.4% raise with a 95% no vote and our 28% raise passed by 5 votes 198 to 193 after 3 or 4 days of "counting" I still haven't talked with 20 or 30 people who voted for it and I found out our contract passed on the evening news. If you have any doubts ask yourself why would we throw out a union that just got us a 30% raise? it wasnt because they were a good union or because we thought 30% was enough.
Atfer I wrote this I reread the string and to the Gentleman in Loneview Did you ever consider that financially maybe your better off than we are because you live 50 miles out of town (portland) in a town of 40,000 and make the same money we do? and you don't pay the 9% Oreogn Income tax on $52,000 a year is almost a whole months wages. (yes I know you have a sales tax) whats the average home price in longview verses Portland? or do a wage check for Longview verses Portland.
Carl
