Hey fellow AMR employees! Mind helping us out?

[fiznat]

I work for AMR in the Northeast, and our contract will be up for renegotiation fairly soon. We are trying to get a little more organized this time around so that we can present some solid arguments come negotiation time.

In order to do this, we are trying to build up a collection of other AMR contracts from around the country. We have been going through them and picking out parts that we like, compiling them into our "ultimate" contract. So far, though, we've only been able to get the NEMSA ones off of their website, and a few extras that we've stumbled upon.

I was wondering if any AMR employee members of this forum would mind sharing their contracts. A digital copy would be awesome, but I am willing to pay for shipping if you would be kind enough to send me a copy.

Please reply here or send me an email: fiznat@gmail.com

Thanks guys!!

[emt-b_wa]

fiznat,

I work in the northwest for AMR and our contract is ok here in our operation but still needs a bit of work. The best contract held by AMR emploies in this area is from King county, Washington They are represented by the teamsters. I like it because it has one rate of pay no more diffrent rates for diffrent shifts. I dont have a copy rediely avaible to me but I would start there.

[fiznat]

Do you have someone I could contact over there who might be able to help me out?

[Scaramedic]

Check your E-Mail

Peace,

Marty

[zzyzx]

hey fiznat,

if you email me your address, i'll send you the riverside CA, AMR contract.

karim

[JakeEMTP]

Hey fiznat, I hope this isn't your service. I hate it that employees will lose their jobs due to poor reinbursement from insurance and Medicare. If people would just pay their bills ( sigh). I am glad to hear that some employees are finding alternative employment fair quickly though.

http://www.ems1.com/managersandsupervisors/articles/313177/

[fiznat]

Jake nah that isn't us... thankfully. I hadn't heard about that.

zzyzx thank you! I'll send you an email soon.

[Doug]

I work for THAT AMR....It sucks...fiznet where do you work? It came out of no where...less than 1 month before we were being told that our number were good. AMR management doesn't listen to their employees...we were losing contract after contract to the other service in town. We would tell them we were losing business..."No no" they said"we are shedding dead weight....those aren't profitable contracts anyway...your UHU's are exactly where they should be..."How can that be? We see the other service going on calls all day long...yet here we sit doing nothing" "It's all in your head." they said..."Hey," we said "The other service just added 2 trucks to days and weekends and another 1-2 at night..where we have dropped one truck" "It's all in your mind, " (as a side note..i was actually told that, that's not an ad-lib or paraphrase) Even local Supes spoke up..we were told that if we could PROVE we were losing business they would look into it...they told us we needed to complile a report of missed calls call volume etc..information BTW that AMR would not share with us...and certainly the other service wasn't going to share.

Long story short, AMR called all it's regional folks back to Colorado, and dropped the bomb. AMR can't compete...they do well when there is no other service...as soon as they have to provide customer service to win contracts..it's over. That is not to say AMR is bad..it's just BIG and they have people to answer too...so even if the staion is profitable...it needs to be profitable ENOUGH. any way that's my tale of woe. No worries...got other offers.

[Lone Star]

AMR can't compete...they do well when there is no other service...as soon as they have to provide customer service to win contracts..it's over. That is not to say AMR is bad..it's just BIG and they have people to answer too...so even if the staion is profitable...it needs to be profitable ENOUGH. any way that's my tale of woe. No worries...got other offers.

fiznat,

I work in the northwest for AMR and our contract is ok here in our operation but still needs a bit of work. The best contract held by AMR emploies in this area is from King county, Washington They are represented by the teamsters. I like it because it has one rate of pay no more diffrent rates for diffrent shifts. I dont have a copy rediely avaible to me but I would start there.

First off, AMR IS 'that bad'. They're a 'for profit' company that has no business in health care. Their ONLY concern is profit, as opposed to employee retention, patient care, maintaing safe equipment, .... the list goes on and on. Their ONLY goal is to be the biggest EMS provider in the United States, and quality be damned, they're going to go full speed ahead!

Before AMR got booted out of damn near every county in Michigan, they had no less than 12 different bargaining units, from the Teamsters on down to the AFL-CIO.

From complaints of poor paitent care, 'call jumping'. slow response times, and a host of other infractions, led to the demise of AMR in Michigan.

Having looked at AMR's home page, I noted that they have 'Operations Locations" in 37 states, but they may only have one or two counties in that state.

I'd be willing to bet that those counties that DO have AMR there would rather someone else came along and formed a company so that they could leave AMR without forsaking EMS care to their citizenry!

[fiznat]

I agree about AMR, and to be honest I feel that this is a problem that is not only specific to AMR, but to private EMS in general. This is a symptom of placing public health in the hands of private industry. As long as this is the case, the drive will NEVER be towards proper patient care unless that aspect has some sort of effect on the bottom line. If counties/states/cities/towns want emergency medical service that has a primary concern of patient care, then they will have to get off their asses and implement a municipal service, as it SHOULD be anyways. This is a problem generated by misplaced priorities by the public itself. It is simply assumed that if a person calls 911, he/she will receive timely and competent medical care. When using a private service, this assumption is NOT valid.

I like to think that our Union is interested in more than securing higher pay and benefits for ourselves. We work together to implement a face of professionalism that is above and beyond that which is expected from AMR alone. We are pushing for more money for medical training, for certification-based bonuses, and other incentives for proper medical care. The company may have a primary interest in their bottom line, and for that we truly cannot blame them, but the outward effects of how the employees work can absolutely be effected by a strong Union with the proper priorities. Though we work in private EMS, there ARE things we can do to make things better.

Anyone else got any contracts?