Ambulance workers turn the tables on the back-to-work legislation

[What_the?]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/09111...ramedic_strike

VANCOUVER (CBC) - The B.C. Ambulance Service is urging residents throughout B.C. to call 911 only in life-threatening situations after a number of paramedics booked off their shifts with little notice Saturday.
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In a written release, the B.C. Ambulance Service said more than 50 paramedics booked off their scheduled shifts just prior to the shift start time.

On Saturday, 10 ambulances were out of service in Metro Vancouver and 10 more in the Fraser Valley.

Three were out of service in the Sea to Sky Corridor and no ambulances were staffed in Boston Bar, Hope, Agassiz or Pemberton.

Only one ambulance was available in Mission and Whistler.

The B.C. Ambulance Service says the move is likely a protest after members of the B.C. legislature pushed through a bill ordering B.C.'s 3,500 ambulance paramedics back to work last Saturday, ending a strike that started in April.

Lee Doney, the CEO of the B.C. Ambulance Service, said this degree of absenteeism has never happened before.

"I understand that paramedics are frustrated. Tempers are high because of the back-to-work legislation, but this is no way to protest. Putting people's lives at risk is no way to protest," he said.

However, John Strohmeier, the president of CUPE Local 873, said the union had nothing to do with the cancelled shifts.

"There is a pandemic going on right now. I suspect that any paramedics that may be symptomatic are probably following the advice of the province's chief medical officer and staying home," he said.

"So I don't think there's any concerted effort by paramedics here. It's just a question of there not being enough staff to begin with."

The B.C. Ambulance Service said low-priority calls would likely be delayed but all emergency calls would be handled on a priority basis.

People with minor injuries or illness were advised to visit their doctor's office or walk-in clinic.

[CRS]

Ugh, though I am not for the legislation that pushes them back to work, this is certainly not a way to fight back.

In fact, this is pretty fucked up that they would even think about risking people's lives in the name of "protesting". This certainly does not make me want to fight their cause when they are hurting the people they are suppose to help.

[Meowjin]

Lol... Why work when you get paid pennies?
Posted via RS Mobile

[PiuYi]

this is terrible
paramedics should get their raises... they seriously get paid shit for what they do

[Lude S]

Originally Posted by PiuYi

this is terrible
paramedics should get their raises... they seriously get paid shit for what they do

dont like it, find another job. Should of known before you started, you signed on knowing how much you get paid.

[dachinesedude]

Originally Posted by MajinHurricane

Lol... Why work when you get paid pennies?
Posted via RS Mobile

so i guess you'd rather die in a car accident than have them come save you, since they shouldnt work right?

[Ch28]

Originally Posted by CRS

Ugh, though I am not for the legislation that pushes them back to work, this is certainly not a way to fight back.

In fact, this is pretty fucked up that they would even think about risking people's lives in the name of "protesting". This certainly does not make me want to fight their cause when they are hurting the people they are suppose to help.

+1

[Meowjin]

Originally Posted by dachinesedude

so i guess you'd rather die in a car accident than have them come save you, since they shouldnt work right?

if they arn't getting paid why work?

You honestly think all doctors/nurses/health care workers are in it to do better for the world and save lives?

Pay these guys what they deserve (they arn't asking for an outrageous wage, they are just asking for STEADY pay, since they get paid by the CALL. Also if they are saving lives shouldn't this be enough to pay them more?)

Making legistlation to FORCE THEM from striking (lol essential service) is borderline unconstitutional, and proves that these guys NEED to get paid more.

I will gladly support the paramedic union. These guy's have been responsive in the past when my mother went into shock pre-death, and gave her a few more days to live so I can say my final goodbyes.

Also the raises are made so they keep up with INFLATION. So STFU if you think they are greedy.

[Meowjin]

Originally Posted by Lude S

dont like it, find another job. Should of known before you started, you signed on knowing how much you get paid.

...

dumbest

thing

ever.

anyways

As in any contract dispute, the bottom line is money. Paramedics say it goes deeper than a 3% pay raise both sides seem to agree on.

The union wants to fix a complicated pay scale that gives on-call workers $2 per hour, while full-time attendants get anywhere from $19 to $35 per hour.

"Specifically we're looking for third-party arbitration to come in and address the issues of the B.C. Ambulance Service. Issues of staffing, recruitment and retention," said Stuart Myers, a union spokesman. "Pay is obviously one issue. We see a complicated payscale and it's impossible to explain in a sound bite."

[!SG]

they arent fighting just for raises, but work hours. there just arent enough ambulance paramedics to go around. but this is a tough one. how can the gov't help out if there arent enough ambulance paramedics? you cant expect them to suddenly clone ppl.

i am for fair wages, and if they are not being paid fairly then they should get just pay. i also remember when i was in the ambulance, after the getting out of the hospital, they mailed me an invoice for about 60 bucks, and the letter stated that they dont get paid for the service. if thats true then than really sucks, i gladly wrote them a cheque.

all i can think of that the gov't can do is create more incentives, market and advertise it more, make it more welcoming for ppl to consider being a paramedic for a career.


its just shitty timing with the economy and how businesses are all cutting back.

[Great68]

Originally Posted by CRS

Ugh, though I am not for the legislation that pushes them back to work, this is certainly not a way to fight back.

In fact, this is pretty fucked up that they would even think about risking people's lives in the name of "protesting". This certainly does not make me want to fight their cause when they are hurting the people they are suppose to help.

Agree, but they really have no other effective means of getting their message out there. What else can they do?

[Razor Ramon HG]

I agree with CRS. This is fucking stupid.

[CRS]

Originally Posted by Great68

Agree, but they really have no other effective means of getting their message out there. What else can they do?

That doesn't justify it at all.

These people are trusted with essential services like saving lives and they want to fight back by saying "oh fuck these people, I want more pay first". I'm sorry, but that is fucked. There is no valid excuse to do such a thing when it is harming the very people that they depend on and vice versa.

[Great68]

Originally Posted by CRS

That doesn't justify it at all.

These people are trusted with essential services like saving lives and they want to fight back by saying "oh fuck these people, I want more pay first". I'm sorry, but that is fucked. There is no valid excuse to do such a thing when it is harming the very people that they depend on and vice versa.

So what else can they do?

[CRS]

Originally Posted by Great68

So what else can they do?

You're not getting it.

You have terrible logic if you think this is the only thing they can do to protest. With questions like "what else can they do?" is like asking well since there is no viable option, this must be the course we should take! Are they so helpless that they are going to revert to 5 year olds and pull stupid as stunts like this that is uncalled for?

Harming the very people you depend on is NOT an answer and should never be an answer. This is why we live in a democracy, sure it has its downfalls but we vote for the guys that put up the legislature. Perhaps we should vote differently?

There are a million things they can do but doing this is never called for. But then again, I guess being shot would be better than getting tased here too.

[Great68]

Originally Posted by CRS

You're not getting it.

You have terrible logic if you think this is the only thing they can do to protest. With questions like "what else can they do?" is like asking well since there is no viable option, this must be the course we should take! Are they so helpless that they are going to revert to 5 year olds and pull stupid as stunts like this that is uncalled for?

Harming the very people you depend on is NOT an answer and should never be an answer. This is why we live in a democracy, sure it has its downfalls but we vote for the guys that put up the legislature. Perhaps we should vote differently?

I think you're not getting it.
What part of what I have said has suggested what they are doing right now was RIGHT?

I asked you what can they do instead? You have not provided an answer. Maybe because there is nothing else they CAN do.

[godwin]

It had been said over and over again, their union screwed themselves and they are now bitter. They were offered a better deal 4% year over year + signing bonus (during the economy was collapsing) union miscalculated and they rejected it.. so now they are ended up with nothing.

^^ What they can do instead? How about quit?

[Great68]

Originally Posted by godwin

How about quit?

Who's going to replace them?

If they did decide to quit en masse, we'd be fucked. You can't exactly hire any Tom, Dick, or Harry to do their job.

[dutch]

Gotta go with the paramedics on this one. These guys are having their rights trampled on.

Their last decent chance of getting what they want is the Olympics. If there are no paramedics, there are no Olympics.


http://www.saveourparamedics.com


make sure you guys watch this, a documentary detailing all the issues the paramedics have.

http://vimeo.com/7176039



.

[Jeffield]

Check this out guys..

http://www.saveourparamedics.com/


Paramedics have came to my old high school and gave a talk, it was very eye opening how much they get screwed over.

[Jeffield]

Damn dutch, you beat me to it.

[7seven]

I feel for the paramedics and agree that they do deserve some sort of raise, however, this whole thing has been horribly mismanaged by their union

This article sums up pretty much how I feel

Was there ever any doubt the strike by B.C. paramedics would end the way it did Monday - with the government legislating ambulance attendants back on the job?

You could see this one coming back in January when the paramedics demanded a 29-per-cent wage hike at the height of the global economic meltdown.

Talk about lousy timing. That's like marching into your boss's office and asking for a raise on the same day the company declares bankruptcy.

The paramedics' stratospheric wage demand reminded me of 2001, when the B.C. teachers union demanded a 34-per-cent raise a few weeks after the 9-11 terrorist attacks had sent world stock markets into freefall.

And guess how that one ended? The teachers went on strike and the government forced them back to work. You don't have to be the Amazing Kreskin to predict this stuff.

That's not to say paramedics don't work their butts off or that they're not a crucial part of the health-care system or they're not respected and appreciated by the public. Just the opposite is true.

It's just that a major aspect of these sort of disputes is the public-relations battle _ and you don't get much public sympathy by asking for the moon when the economy is on the rocks and thousands of people are out of work. (Ask the 535 people just laid off in Kitimat if a 29-per-cent raise is a reasonable demand.)

And was there ever a genuine chance of a negotiatied settlement? When the government offered a three-per-cent raise, the union executive responded in the bluntest of terms.

"The offer of settlement amounts to a piece of crap," CUPE Local 873 presidents John Strohmaier wrote in his official recommendation to union members.

A "piece of crap"? When the economy is flatlining and the annual inflation rate is actually below zero?

At some point, there's no sense talking anymore.

The union demanded such a big raise because they wanted to be paid the same as Vancouver police officers, despite the fact that the two jobs are completely different and haven't been in the same wage ballpark since the 1970s.

The bitter irony for the union is they could have settled back in March for a three-per-cent raise and a $4,100 signing bonus.

Now the bonus has gone bye-bye, at a time when paramedics could have used the cash.

And by the way: If paramedics are so underpaid at up to $91,000 a year, why are 350 paramedic students trying to train for jobs right now - training that's been stymied by the strike because the union won't participate in their practicums?

Throw in the H1N1 flu virus, and critical ambulance shortages during the strike, and the government saw the perfect opportunity to bring the hammer down.

CUPE blew it: They should have taken the bonus bucks, like every other public-sector union was smart enough to do.

http://www.theprovince.com/business/...393/story.html

[Eff-1]

And for those who are wondering what's the pay structure like:

Paramedics need to put in quite some time before they can be bumped up or fill in an OFFICIAL full time PCP position.

Until that time (approx 6 years is the amount of time it takes to accumulate that seniority now as far as I'm told as I'm getting into the field myself) to be eligible for such a title.

Until that time paramedics work on call or FOX shifts - an on call shift (usually the back up car) entails 12 hours of $2 an hr pager pay, at which point if you get a call on the back up car you get bumped up to 3-4 hours at PCP wage which I'm told is between $15-$30/hr. Whether you get ONE call-out or SEVEN in that time frame, you get paid for 3-4 hours from the initial call, and then go back down to pager pay. Keep in mind at $2 an hr, whether you get a call or not, you need to be within range of the station, if not on site, with uniform ready to go, can't make plans with your family etc, need to stay sober, its as if you're working, but you're not!

Then there's a fox shift - where you can be paired with a full time paramedic for a 12 hour shift on the Alpha car - main responding ambulance from the station, and you are at $10 an hr, but same thing goes, you don't get full PCP wage until you get a call, and the wage is only for that specific period of time, regardless of how many calls you recieve, and then you're back down to the $10/hr.

For the first 10 years or so unless you're prepared to pull ridiculous amounts of overtime, the training facilities are VERY up front that it is NOT a job that you can live off of, particularly at today's cost of living, unless you are prepared to offer full time, damn-near 24/7 abvailability spread out amongst a few different stations, to block you for as many shifts as you can do.

Argyle or any other PCP's correct me if I'm wrong here, just trying to explain it as its been done with me.

[Eff-1]

Think about this next time you crash your civic and lying in a ditch waiting for help:

Paramedics pay up to $10,000 and go to school for about 6 months, live in Vancouver but get their first station in lets say Litton

they drive up to Litton having to put in a minimum of 8 shifts of availbility, grab a pager and sit and wait for one of lets say us, to go off the road and down the bank

the pager goes off and they hop in the ambulance...to that point they are making 2.00 an hour ...then they get paid for minumum 4 hr call out at our rate ( starting is around 17.00 first year) I believe

In my case I worked in Chemainus for 8.5 years before getting enough senority for full time hire. back then we had no pager pay, so we carried a pager for free

It was a great part time job, but you had to do something else besides... to make ends meet

2.00 an hour pager pay was only implemented a few years ago

I have been over in Vancouver for close to 7 1/2 years now full time

to put it in perspective there are approximately 3800 paramedics in the province and only 1300 are full time

[StylinRed]

I agreed with the paramedics throughout their dispute, but this tactic that they're taking now is despicable and doesn't deserve support from the public.. i had always assumed that they yearned to help people while trying to get what they want (which should have the full backing of the public) but what they're doing now is just playing with peoples lives