AMR has hidden camera in EMS Union's negotiation room

[akflightmedic]

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-whdbu...0,7347058.story

Click link above for full story...AK

Medics' Union Files Complaint Over Concealed Camera

By JOSH KOVNER | The Hartford Courant

November 3, 2008

WEST HARTFORD — - Contract talks between an ambulance company and its medics were jolted last week when union negotiators said they found a small surveillance camera hidden in a smoke detector in a conference room at American Medical Response's regional office in West Hartford.

The discovery of the camera, which was plugged into an outlet that was concealed by ceiling tiles, led the union — the National Emergency Medical Services Association — to file a federal unfair-labor-practice complaint. West Hartford police are also investigating.

A union news release described the incident as "a new low" for AMR, a national company that provides ambulance service in Greater Hartford, the New Haven area, and other Connecticut locations. The union represents 250 emergency medical technicians and paramedics, and 50 transportation workers in AMR's Greater Hartford office.

AMR denies it was listening to or recording conversations in the room, which union negotiators were using to talk with their lawyer and plan strategy.

[tniuqs]

That happened back in the day with Edmonton Ambulance Authority, not many managers left to tell the story.

And some dumb ass (in management) got taped sucking back Entonox looser.

AMR gate ?

cheers

[Dustdevil]

Wow! A large corporation puts security surveillance cameras in the common areas of its corporate facilities. Imagine that! Who'd a thunk it?

This is just NEMSA posturing and trying to make a case where there is none. No law was broken here. In fact, I'm betting someone in the union knew all along that there has been a camera in there for years, and asked to use the room for a meeting just so they could play the victim over the camera.

You don't like the space that the company is allowing you to utilise for free? Go find your own place, dickwad. And jack up your union dues to do so too.

[Richard B the EMT]

The first Local 2507/District Council 27/AFSCME union meeting I ever attended, in 1985, a member I was not really friendly with, gave me a bag to hide my portable radios in, as at the previous meeting, someone had recorded that meeting, which included potential strategies, and turned the tape over to the city negotiators. He feared by my simply having the radios openly in my possession, I might have been assaulted, being believed to be a union busting "spy".

[UMSTUDENT]

Wow! A large corporation puts security surveillance cameras in the common areas of its corporate facilities. Imagine that! Who'd a thunk it?

This is just NEMSA posturing and trying to make a case where there is none. No law was broken here. In fact, I'm betting someone in the union knew all along that there has been a camera in there for years, and asked to use the room for a meeting just so they could play the victim over the camera.

You don't like the space that the company is allowing you to utilise for free? Go find your own place, dickwad. And jack up your union dues to do so too.

It's still illegal to visually record an employee without first making them aware of the possibility. You can engage in video only, no sound, so long as the employee is fairly warned ahead of time that they may be monitored.

The easy way for AMR to win this battle is to prove that there was no audio recording. What good does it do you to record video without sound at a union meeting? If they've got sound...all over.

[spenac]

How funny this is the ad that popped up when I opened to read this topic.

http://www.spyville.com/?gclid=CPjL1Ymm2pYCFQEuxwod80ocxA

Oh with video they could hire lip readers.

[tniuqs]

Wow! A large corporation puts security surveillance cameras in the common areas of its corporate facilities. Imagine that! Who'd a thunk it?

This is just NEMSA posturing and trying to make a case where there is none. No law was broken here. In fact, I'm betting someone in the union knew all along that there has been a camera in there for years, and asked to use the room for a meeting just so they could play the victim over the camera.

You don't like the space that the company is allowing you to utilise for free? Go find your own place, dickwad. And jack up your union dues to do so too.

Therfore its acceptable for large corporations to potentially spy on an organization trying to improve standards for its workers .... and thats acceptable behaviour .... hmm smacks of something else to me, rights to privacy would be top on my list.

A historical note, but didn't Nixon do something like this, just wondering.

cheers

[Dustdevil]

It's still illegal to visually record an employee without first making them aware of the possibility. You can engage in video only, no sound, so long as the employee is fairly warned ahead of time that they may be monitored.

Actually, that depends on what state you are talking about. It varies. But generally, it is held that a person in a common, public area has no expectation of privacy from monitoring. Sometimes, even dressing rooms, bunk rooms, and bath rooms have been upheld as fair game by the courts.

Nobody has claimed that the room was bugged for sound, only that a camera was found. And nobody has claimed that there were no signs posted at the entrance of the building warning that the premises were under video surveillance.

Again, union organises utilising company premises for their organisational meetings is just a sign of how stupid they are to begin with. These certainly aren't the rocket surgeons I'd be trusting with my job.

[Capman]

Again, union organises utilising company premises for their organisational meetings is just a sign of how stupid they are to begin with. These certainly aren't the rocket surgeons I'd be trusting with my job.

Bingo! What ever happened to a union conference hall or a conference room at some hotel paid for by your union dues? Instead, the union pockets your money after getting a freebie (compliments of the corporation they intend on crapping on) then get PO'd after looking like a pile of jackasses. If I were an employee of this so called union, I'd be asking what the hell dues pay for these days!

[DwayneEMTP]

C'mon folks, the union has every right to be upset.

It says right in their handbook; Lying, violence, intimidation, blackmail, destruction of persona property, etc are all acceptable means of negotiation...but that danged video taping is just going to far!

I'm on board with Dust. If they hadn't have found a camera, nothing would have made them happier than to have placed one. And for the record, I'll be holding the phone for the update that, "this was all just a big misunderstanding" when AMR proves thatt there was never a camera in the first place.

Dwayne