President of Austin EMS Association, Selena Xie, said they felt no appreciation from the city regarding everything that has happened since they last renegotiated pay, including"a pandemic, an ice storm and an explosion of expensive housing costs in Austin."
"As we have more and more emergencies in this city because of population and violence, we're going to need this [raise] more than ever," Xie said."I think it's really important that we start catching up before we fall too far behind. We're already 25% short-staffed and it's only going to get worse until we really improve our wages."
Medics are feeling the brunt of these departures, with some having to work 48 hours of overtime a month on top of their regular duties. The Union raised concerns about staffing shortages and overtime. We addressed those issues head-on, offering to hire directly into the Paramedic rank. Our offer would have aided in reducing the existing vacancies. It is surprising that the Union chose to hold off on prioritizing their members' work life balance.
The insurance companies take all the money. You don't see protesters outside their buildings. You should
Sadly this happening in most private and public positions in Austin area currently. Pay for many does not meet needs to live in this increasingly expensive city. Renting used to be affordable but now even that has skyrocketed.
If true, that is insulting!
Literally for the people between you and death.
Insulting
But who can afford a $1500 EMS trip that is already 10X the global average, or more?
Matias7Dani NOT COOL, AUSTIN.
Matias7Dani really austintexasgov
Matias7Dani We need to push back against state government's insistence that all our money has to go to police and only police.