DOES ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THE AMR STRIKE IN LOS ANGELES?

[Dustdevil]

Welcome to the City, and thanks for the insight! It's always helpful to get a first hand report. But this statement confuses me a little:

And to be honest, I'd be a happier EMT, If I came to work in the morning and found that the previous crew had left my assigned Ambulance clean and fueled up.

It seems as if you are saying that it's your co-workers that suck. I'm certainly not questioning you on that. There's a lot of suckage in Kalifornia EMS. But if your co-workers are the problem, how would you expect punishing your employer to solve that problem? Sounds a bit like holding your breath until you get your way. It doesn't fix the problem, and it hurts you. Can you explain a little more about what your grievances are, and how you would expect a strike to address them?

[stcommodore]

doesn't sound like this board is very pro-union. I don't know what they are striking over but if we can't stand together in this profession we are all screwed.

[Dustdevil]

doesn't sound like this board is very pro-union. I don't know what they are striking over but if we can't stand together in this profession we are all screwed.

It's not the board. It's the nation. This board is a reflection of the nation, not just a couple of non-union states.

Regardless of unions, this "profession" will never stand together. Never. It simply is not an achievable goal. Consequently, it isn't even a profession at all. It's just a job. Not even a job, really. Just a collection of many jobs lumped together as one. How do you unite that?

[mrmeaner]

doesn't sound like this board is very pro-union. I don't know what they are striking over but if we can't stand together in this profession we are all screwed.

Don't see the point anymore. The Unions' focuses seem to have shifted from "protect the worker" to "screw the employer". Labor laws have been added and changed. Unions don't seem to have a meaningful role to play in improving situations anymore.

I understand that most likely every employer could improve how they treat their employees in some aspect. However the average employee isn't a great catch either. And the employees the unions are typically defending are the ass clowns that should have been fired years ago.

The biggest tool the union seems to have anymore, is to strike. Great idea. Can I pay a bunch of people $40 a month in dues for them to tell me when I'm not happy with my job to quit working and loose even more money. Wonderful! After 3 weeks of striking with no income the union and management can have a pissing match to at best increase my wage by 5 percent. Wow! That will come in handy because I just lost just over 5 percent of my yearly income by striking for the last 3 weeks.

No thanks. If I want to lose my job I can figure out ways to do it without the help of a union, thank you. In fact, that could be the new motto: UNIONS: When you're too lazy to f*&$ up your job on your own.

So no, I'm not pro-union.

[checkersfire]

doesn't sound like this board is very pro-union. I don't know what they are striking over but if we can't stand together in this profession we are all screwed.

I don't know either. The rumor going around here is that it is over whether to sign 3 yr contract or 4 yr. I believe it has to be more than that. Who sponsors your union? Here the only ambulance private service that is union is Gateway and that is backed by the teamsters. They do have it pretty good. Their previous owners almost lost the company by some misconduct, but they were just bought out and making a come back. Their emt's start out at $14 an hour and medics at either $19 or $20 an hour. Thats why amr is losing alot of people here to them!

[checkersfire]

There are a bunch of AMR managers from my area (Portland/Vancouver) that have been there since Wednesday. They are running 9-1-1 calls and occasional IFT's. Its their second deployment in a month. Most were also ready to be sent to Spokane for their strike.

How far are you from Seattle? I have an old boss/friend that is a cop there and I have been considering coming up that way.

[AnthonyM83]

I've never understood the pro union or against union stances. Guess we never talked about them growing up. Why don't some people like them as a concept? (I'm not even talking EMS here, just in general)

[Dustdevil]

I can't speak for others, but for me personally, it's not the concept that I am against. The concept of unity in the workforce is a good one. It is the execution of that unity, as carried out by today's unions, that I have the problem with.

[Trapper]

It seems as if you are saying that it's your co-workers that suck. I'm certainly not questioning you on that. There's a lot of suckage in Kalifornia EMS. But if your co-workers are the problem, how would you expect punishing your employer to solve that problem? Sounds a bit like holding your breath until you get your way. It doesn't fix the problem, and it hurts you. Can you explain a little more about what your grievances are, and how you would expect a strike to address them?

[JPINFV]

When was the last time that a strike has done any good in Southern California? The last three I can think of was the Writer's Guild strikes and the 2 supermarket employee strikes. Last time I checked, all of those strikes ended up with more damage to the strikers than to the companies.