carl4nemsanw

Exactly, "not a bit of evidence" dust we cant provide evidence until after "evidence" happens if you go to the store and by a can of guarnteed 20 yr latex green paint and 1) You'll have to take their word for it that its latex. 2) You'll know right away if it green or not. and 3) It will take 20 years to see if the guaruntee is good. I wont be able to provide any evidence until after our contract is setteled, but the NEMSA Oak Valley conract was passed by 100% of the employee's which is remarkable considering you couldnt get 100% of EMS workers to agree that the earth is round. Evidence will come with time as NEMSA starts to grow and get more contracts. People here have high expectations (there are alot of people crazier than I am) and we'll know if a few months. Dust I didnt "make a bad carrer choice I/we made a bad union choice not once but twice we've voted out the ATU in 1996 and voted them in 2 years later. Our unoin was so horrible it drug wages down across the entire northwest. I voted no on every ATU contract ever put before me. More Later. Carl

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

We just voted in NEMSA at AMR Northwest 527 ballots mailed 298 for NEMSA 74 for the ATU or 80/20 if that works for you. A few of the reasons that we switched from the ATU to NEMSA is/are low wages, low 401k, poor vacation, 3 years ago our Paramedics and EMT's were 60% and 90% percent behind our AMR coworkers in Northern California and last year 16 Paramedic and EMT jobs were eliminated and the "savings" (our former wages) were given to 3 local fire departments and the county, the ATU did nothing to stop it. Basically the ATU couldn't or wouldn't keep us up with our AMR co-workers to the south. Currently Paramedics in Portland and SW Washington make California EMT basic wages. Seven days after NEMSA was officially recognized we had twice as many volunteer NEMSA stewards as we had ATU stewards. Will NEMSA be better? we'll know in a few months. I do know that the 2 best bargaining units in AMR (San Mateo and NorCal) have already joined NEMSA. It was easy for us we now have over 3,000 AMR employees in the same union from San Francisco to Longview WA how can that be a bad thing. For us and anybody in EMS NEMSA is the only possibility for growth or advancement as a profession. How many unions are EMT's and Paramedics spread across ATU, IAFF, IAEP, SEIU, UAW, NAGE, Teamsters and probably dozens of others what good has it done? When we all worked for mom and pop ambulance companies we were happy that any union would take us but they didn't know what to do with our profession or what to do for us. With NEMSA we dont have that problem anymore. Thats one reason why NEMSA will be better. Carl