Strike vote today

[EMSEDU]

EMS strike vote starts today

UPDATED: 2007-07-16 01:26:03 MST

City says contingency plan in place as union members head to polls

By KATIE SCHNEIDER, SUN MEDIA

The fate of ambulance service in the city will be in the hands of union members this week when its more than 400 Calgary EMS staff head to the polls starting today.

With a sizable wage gap between what is being offered and what the union is seeking, contingency plans are being made for the event of the a strike, city spokeswoman Vickie Megrath said.

However, if the union does decide to strike, Megrath said EMS service will still continue.

"Public and health safety is of primary concern," she said.

"We do have a contingency plan in place."

Though fewer ambulances would be on the road, managers who are trained paramedics will staff them and be available to care for patients.

She said the city values its EMS employees and the job they do and is willing to continue negotiations with the union.

"Our primary goal is to reach a negotiated settlement with them," she said.

The union is seeking a 30% wage increase over three years including market adjustments to the base pay and the city is offering a 12% increase plus shift differential and a supplemental pension plan.

Megrath said the 12% increase is in line with what the city and transit union settled on during their negotiations in June.

It is also affordable for taxpayers, and would keep the city's paramedics among the highest paid in Western Canada, she said.

Polling stations will be set up at four locations in the city and open for seven hours, today through Wednesday.

Bruce Robb, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3421, said the strike vote will give members a chance to have a voice.

"I'm hoping the members make a decision and I'll respect that decision whatever it is," Robb said.

The Alberta Labour Board will notify the city of the results on Thursday.

__________________

EMS to decide on strike notice

City digging in, say 'fair offer' was made

Sean Myers, Calgary Herald

Published: Monday, July 16, 2007

Calgary EMS workers are deciding over the next three days whether to issue a strike notice as the city accuses the paramedics union of demanding an unreasonable pay raise that totals 30 per cent.

The city ran newspaper ads on Sunday saying the 18 per cent raise the union has asked for combined with the market and pay grid adjustments also demanded actually total a 30 per cent bottom-line increase.

That's well above the 12 per cent hike offered by the city during negotiations.

"We've made what we feel is a fair offer that will see Calgary paramedics continue to be the top paid in Alberta and the second highest paid in Western Canada," said city spokeswoman Vickie Megrath.

The average paramedic salary last year, according to T4 slips, was $75,000, said Megrath, and the union request would put that average over $100,000, she claimed.

"That's not affordable to Calgary taxpayers," said Megrath. "We value paramedics and what they do, but we also have to be answerable to Calgary taxpayers."

Bruce Robb, president of the paramedics union, said a suggested percentage for the market adjustments has not been finalized.

"Those are the city's numbers, not ours," said Robb. "I'm not prepared to debate this through the media."

Over 400 EMS workers are eligible to vote today through Wednesday. Robb described a strike vote as a tool to be used in negotiations.

Both sides said they are willing to go back to the table to come to a negotiated solution, but Robb didn't seem optimistic.

"They haven't talked to us since the talks went south in mid-June," said Robb.

The city has been asking the province for several years to declare EMS an essential service along with police and firefighters, which would remove their right to strike.

Premier Ed Stelmach has said he is in favour of the move and was awaiting a report on the issue from Employment, Immigration and Industry Minister Iris Evans.

If the province determines that a strike action is a threat to health and safety of Calgarians, it could intervene by ordering a disputes inquiry board or recommending the lieutenant-governor declare an emergency resolution tribunal, which is binding.

"We are monitoring the negotiations very closely," said employment, immigration and industry spokeswoman Lorelei Fiset-Cassidy.

Paramedics have been without a contract for almost a year. The city is offering a 12 per cent increase over three years and a 10-cent increase in the hourly differential to 85 cents.

The union wants five per cent for the last six months of 2006, five per cent in 2007 and 2008 and three per cent in the first half of 2009.

As well, it is asking for a market adjustment that would be retroactive to the end of June, which would range between nine and 11 per cent. The union wants to see the hourly differential double to $1.50 before the end of the contract.

smyers@theherald.canwest.com

[HellsBells]

Union votes to strike

UPDATED: 2007-07-20 01:39:45 MST

Members' support at 99%

By BILL KAUFMANN, SUN MEDIA

The city's paramedics union says it will soon be issuing a strike notice after 99% of voting members supported a walkout.

Only four of the 358 EMS staff who signed ballots in three days of voting opposed a strike, surprising even the union's executive, said its president Bruce Robb.

Paramedic Rina Campus said the tally proves how far apart the two sides are.

"It shows our members are increasingly frustrated with wages levels as well as chronic staff shortages," said Campus.

Robb noted the province has vowed to short-circuit any strike by imposing some form of arbitration "but the province can't do anything until we serve notice."

The union, he said, has no choice but to up the ante any way it can.

"If we do nothing, what happens? Nothing," he said, noting the logjam is now a year old.

The union is demanding what it says is an 18% wage hike over three years, though the city contends the union's proposal actually amounts to a 30% hike.

The city is offering 12% over three years.

Robb said his executive will meet today to determine what action will be taken by the union, which has already engaged in work-to-rule activities.

He said he understands a city contingency plan includes the use of transit managers with first-aid training to operate ambulances.

"Comparing them to paramedics with four years of education is a bit of a stretch," he said.

While the union says it wants to bridge a $6-an-hour gap with other protective services staff, city spokeswoman Vickie Megrath said the city's offer is in line with that accepted by 75% of its workers.

"We think it's fair and reasonable... what the union is seeking is not affordable to taxpayers and we've also offered them a supplementary pension, which is a first for paramedics in Canada," said Megrath.

Megrath also said the city offered the union voluntary binding arbitration.

When including overtime and other premium pay, the city says most paramedics make $75,000 a year.

But the union says relying on that overtime burns out paramedics, adding a properly-staffed service would drop earnings to $60,000.

[EMSEDU]

Worried about a half-baked, scab version of EMS? Don't be ... the walkout won't happen

UPDATED: 2007-07-20 01:39:45 MST

By RICK BELL

Union votes to strike

Strike but no strike.

The moves on the chess board will be made but there is no reason for fear or loathing. Our ambulances will not disappear from Calgary streets. Citizens will not face some half-baked contingency plan where city staff with basic ambulance operation and first-aid training try to make Emergency Medical Services work.

Such is the commitment of Iris (Not An Idiot) Evans, the province's minister responsible for labour, who is also a Calgary-trained nurse and former Alberta Health head honcho.

Yes, our world-class paramedics voted 354 to 4 this week for a strike and their union execs discuss today when to serve a three-day notice of a walkout.

Yes, the paramedics will give the 72-hour notice, probably sometime early next week. But the province, as the clock ticks down the 72 hours, is expected to declare an emergency exists and send the city and the paramedics to an arbitrator who will impose a deal binding on both sides.

A strike will have been called and paramedics will come close to hitting the bricks but a strike will not actually occur. Paramedics will be sent back to work. Calgary EMS will be treated as an essential service without being an essential service written in law.

"The bottom line now is we're not going to let Calgarians be put at risk. We can't have an interruption of service. We're going to effectively stop any public emergency," says Iris, who speaks similar sentiments when she meets with the Sun last week during a Stampede visit.

"The process can be put in place and start right away."

Mayor Bronco insists the city has the bases covered with a backup plan using EMS management in ambulances and other city workers as drivers. "It will not provide the service Calgarians have come to expect," admits Bronco. No kidding.

The mayor even offers voluntary arbitration, a case of too little, too late.

Iris says she remains "always hopeful" the city and paramedics can somehow come to an 11th-hour handshake, but she's a realist.

And, also as a realist, Iris is almost certainly not going to use the provincial government's other option, to send the mess to a mediator who can stall the strike but only offer a suggested settlement either side can punt.

In this dispute, the two sides are too far apart. Mediation is a waste of time.

The city offers 12% over three years, paramedics want 18% plus an adjustment of the pay grid adding up to a total 30% hike over three years.

Even the United Nations can't bridge that kind of gulf.

Grumblers may not like these numbers, but EMS staff do a stand-up job, their skills are much in demand and there is already a shortage of trained people here.

And, in case you didn't notice, the cost of living is booming and the tide of this boom isn't lifting all boats equally. The show-and-tell set can't mouth about how much money they're making and then expect those without a seat on the gravy train to not want a slurp of the sauce.

Besides, the strike vote shows how united the paramedics are in their position.

The membership is very unhappy, frustrated over their dough, especially when compared to some other city workers, and peeved about short staffing where some paramedics are on the job upwards to 60 hours a week.

The move of Iris to grab the gong and end the show is not going to create too many sobs over at the paramedics union HQ. "They'll do what they do and we'll follow," says Bruce Robb, president of the paramedics union, a man who has been through over a year of back-and-forth blither and blather with the city and still has somehow managed to stay on an even keel.

Bruce says they've tried everything to get a deal. Going to a third party for a binding agreement is a gamble but the odds at this table aren't bad.

"Shouldn't they have been bargaining rather than building a contingency plan providing half the service or a quarter of the service?" asks Bruce. "We've tried. At some point the employer has to take responsibility. Every once in awhile you have to re-right the balance. This is the day."

There is a day to vote for a strike, a day to notify the city and the public of a strike but not a day to go on strike.

I guess our paramedics provide us too valuable of service to risk a game of chicken.

Hope their value will now be acknowledged.

- Calgary Sun.

[Sdowler]

My service in the US just voted a strike on both the east and west coasts