Seattle EMTs inch closer to strike after rejecting latest contract
Dec 18, 2018, 6:28 PM
(Atomic Taco, Flickr Creative Commons)
(Atomic Taco, Flickr Creative Commons)
Seattle EMTs have rejected the latest offer from American Medical Response, and now intend to strike beginning at noon, Dec. 21.
RELATED: Seattle EMTs vote to strike without pay increase
The local Teamster’s union approved the walkout by more than 400 EMTs and paramedics in the Seattle area early in December, barring the approval of a new contract. Now, after EMT’s rejected what AMR called their “last and final offer,” a strike seems likely.
An EMT who asked to remain anonymous told KIRO Radio that the rejected offer from AMR would have paid new employees $17 an hour. The Teamster’s final counter-offer asked for $17.50 an hour for those EMTs, and then $18.50 for employees who hit the six-month mark.
AMR is now looking to hire hundreds of temporary workers to care for patients left in a lurch when EMT’s drop everything they’re doing, return their ambulances to their stations, and go home Friday (with the exception of instances where they’d be transporting someone with a life-threatening condition).
“As the nation’s largest provider of private EMS services in the country, AMR is prepared to ensure that there is little or no impact on King County EMS as a result of the Strike,” the company said in a news release.
According to AMR, Seattle EMTs are asking for a level of pay equal to that of their San Francisco counterparts, described by the company as “one of the nation’s largest 911 systems.”
The notable difference between San Francisco and Seattle’s EMT’s: The latter does not provide on-site medical care and largely is used to transport non-life-threatening patients to local hospitals. Seattle’s fire department is responsible for life-threatening emergency treatment and transport.
AMR also noted that its EMTs are not paramedics and “are not trained to provide advanced life support.”
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