IAFF poised to take over San Mateo Transports

RNmedic · Veteran Member

IAFF poised to take over San Mateo Transports

NEMSA lover · Veteran Member

Coocoo for COCO

RNmedic · Veteran Member

RE: IAFF poised to take over San Mateo Transports

NEMSA lover · Veteran Member

don't be so naive as to think that 250 or IAEP will NOT sell you down the river. In a New York Nano second! Anything for a buck!

Clear_my_side · Senior Member

NEMSA lover, you are taking this pretty lightly. Did you not understand what RN wrote?? The IAFF is getting ready to gear up and take the jobs, ALL of the jobs, from the medics and EMT's in San Mateo that have voted in NEMSA as their representation. Do you really think that the county and city board are not going to take a bid from them seriously? No matter what the relationship and history that AMR has with them, this is the Fire Department we are talking about. Stamp your feet all you want that SEIU and IAEP are "in Bed" with the FD, but without AFL-CIO protection you are as naked as a bare bunny in Antartica. The only reason why the FD's have not taken you jobs before is because they couldn't. They were bound by Article 20 to not raid an AFL-CIO affiliated union of their jobs. It was against the laws that are written into AFL-CIO. Now San Mateo does not have that protection. As far as the public is concerned, and the city counsel and the county board, the FD can do no wrong. They all but walk on water since 911, they are inexpensive and to do ambulance transport, they do not touch the tax payers dollars. They bill for all medical calls/transports. Medical is NOT written into your property taxes and therefore is not paid for it. Although, fighting fires is. AMR in Lancaster does the billing for the LAFD for all medical runs that require a paramedic to ride in with them. And that is what pays for the FD and paramedics. It is not "free" to have an FD medic treat you or transport you. They are coming San Mateo. They've written to the city counsel and county board, they want that money, they want that buisness, they want that notch in their belt, and to get it they will play dirty and still save face with the public. The public loves them as you well know. I can't imagine how NEMSA is going to protect you against this. They have said over and over that they feel that an affiliation with AFL-CIO is "worthless" and "a waste of money". We'll see after all of this plays out. But I'm honestly sweating bullets for San Mateo. If this goes the way I think it will go.... it's going to be ugly and they are going to come out of this with nothing and nowhere to go. Please take this seriously NEMSA lover, please don't brush this off or believe it will never happen. IAFF is so much bigger then anything out there right now and they have the financial and political backing from literally every state and county to get what they want. People see them on the same level as Jesus, and I don't believe I'm exaggerating when I say that. You see it too, I know you do. Don't close your eye with this.

NEMSA lover · Veteran Member

And as far as we know, the well-connected people in this conflict, in San Mateo, it is still the JPA who makes the decisions about who transports...

RNmedic · Veteran Member

Here is a link to the actual letter. You can read the complete and actual letter yourself. THINK BEFORE YOU VOTE!!!!

http://www.frontiernet.net/~rguy/sanmateo.pdf

Medic_One · Senior Member

So they wrote a letter threatening to do what they are already doing. So freaking what!

This is nothing new. We have been AFL-CIO affiliated for over 15 years and that affiliation has done us nothing but harm.

Tell me smart guy what did the AFL-CIO affiliation do for the 147 Private EMS workers that lost there jobs to Sac Metro fire? What did that affiliation do to stop the Stockton Fire from transporting? What did the AFL-CIO affiliation do for the 5 Calaveras members that were displaced because Ebbets pass fire took over in Arnold? How about those AFL-CIO Fire ambulances in Santa Clara? What about the AFL-CIO push for the elimination of 50% of the medic positions in ALCO? Oh and of course the Measure H funds going from the AFL-CIO members of private EMS to the fire dept.

Yes please lets vote IAEP so that we can stay AFL-CIO. They have helped us so much.

Also, now that 250 and IAEP are deep in bed with IAFF, do you think that they will even blink when their buddies at the IAFF want to take our jobs? Will they fight for us when they have made agreements like these? Who is in whose pocket? It is nice to see that what NEMSA has been saying all along is true: SEIU, Local 250, IAEP, NAGE are all extremely pro-public, so much to the point that patient care and our families are stomped on by our own union and their friends.

Equus911 · Member

If you people don't take that letter from Lou Paulson as a warning sign, then you are completely blind and there is no reasoning with you. I'm getting really tired of NEMSA people throwing Sacramento up and using it as an example of why Article 20 isn't working. To quote from my other post regarding Sacramento: "In 1991 there were four ambulance services up in Sac. The EMS system there was rated by JEMS as the worst system in the state of California, so the authorites in that area revamped the system and with all the squabbling among the owners of the companies Fire ended up with the transport. This is EXACTLY what's going to happen if we lose strong representation with AFL-CIO. "

Do your research and found out how many times IAEP and even 250 have gotten fire to drop a bid for transport when they confronted IAFF with Article 20 violations. These will far outnumber the situations you try to dredge up and twist around to make it look like the union failed. In every instance where Article 20 hasn't protected an AFL-CIO shop it was because of mitigating circumstances over which the union has no control: response times, chaotic contract management by AMR, contract violations, etc.

WAKE UP! San Mateo is now targeted for job loss to the fire departments up there, and the rest of us will follow if we abandon our protection. Your comments that SEIU will do "anything for a buck" are unfounded and have no place in this debate.

--Equus

Play with My Money · Senior Member

Sometimes there are 201 exemption rights.

Sometimes there are politics.

Sometimes there are new private ambulance companies that take over management that replace and subcontract a workforce.

As for being in bed; IAEP and IAFF are not even in the same room.

valleyemt · Member

So Medic One...or should I say Tim Bonifay...so freakin what??????

Its not yoUr family that will lose out, its mine and my co-workers. Funny, whenever you talk about our job losses, AMR management never gets any blame...they've been co-towing to the fire chiefs across northern california for years, to the point that they they throw millions of dollars a year at them..money out of our pockets...always the union's fault, never the company's.

By the way tim, there are dedicated police officers and firefighters who are public employees and they are not bad people. They protect our communities every day. By the way, our fighting men and women who are defending our country in the Iraq war are government empoloyees... putting their lives on the line for you and me. Just like the hundreds of police, firefighters and EMS professionals who gave their lives for this country on 9/11..

SO CUT IT OUT!!!!!

NEMSA lover · Veteran Member

Medic one is not Tim.

But where you get off dragging 9/11 into this is beyond me. It appears you would want to be a hero. How about you go fight a war. Hero. Bet you haven't.

Old Rhino · Veteran Member

Its the unions job to protect the workers no matter what AMR does. so dont blame Amr for Fire depts taking over.....If you want to worry about something, worry about what Seiu,Nage,Iaep promised these firefighter to have them write this letter. Which county are they planning to sell out to fire for this deal....Maybe its yours.

-- Edited by Old Rhino at 22:45, 2004-08-26

Play with My Money · Senior Member

AMR makes the star cars.

AMR subcontracts.

AMR pays fire departments to have first responder programs so that they can extend response times and cut ambulance unit hours.

How has SEIU or the IAFF ever been involved in these business transactions? All the union can do is fight a battle that violates the contract between employee and employer. SEIU did make a strong fight in the last negotiations and has protected EMS from subcontracting. How many jurisdictions have fallen from the core contract since the subcontracting language was put in place?

Now we risk opening the contract and losing our protection against subcontracting. That is a huge price for the members to pay.

valleyemt · Member

Aaron, have you even read the letter? IAEP/SEIU had nothing to do with it. It was a letter from the head of the state firefighters union to a member of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors who had made an inquiry related to 911 transport. Put the hummer in park and read the letter...Jeez Aaron, who isn't part of this conspiracy.

Stay Cool Bro!

Medic_One · Senior Member

Wrong again,

AMR is forced to make the deals with fire because SEIU and AFL-CIO wont do anything about it.

Riddle me this...Now the Lou Poulson has written that letter for SEIU supporting them, does that mean that fire departments across the state are going to stop getting into the ambulance business? That’s right, of course they’re not, but since IAFF is helping SEIU. IAFF is going to want something in return. How hard do you think SEIU, IAEP, NAGE, or 250 is going to fight the fire department now that they have this new friendship? So if we agree that fire will not ever give up their transport dreams and SEIU now has an obligation to not fight them; tell me how does that protect us? Get ready for fleecing

Play with My Money · Senior Member

Lou is not an IAFF leader. Lou is the president of the California Professional Fire Fighters. An affiliate of the IAFF. As for an allegience between SEIU and IAFF, I seriously doubt that there is much going on between them. I think that the letter Lou wrote plainly says that whenever ambulance personnel are not union members, fire is compelled to secure those jobs.

Forfend · Senior Member

So, according to this old thread, Medic One is not Tim.

I guess Medic One is Torren.

Well Vernon, what to that old friend?