The head of one union says that as it is, the city is struggling to staff its ambulances.
Anthony Almojera, the vice president of Uniformed EMS Officers Union Local 3621, said he’s lost eight members to suicide in the last three years, and that some members are homeless. An FDNY EMS worker outside of Brooklyn Hospital Center in Downtown Brooklyn on Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. | Hiram Alejandro Durán/THE CITYthat other municipal unions follow, because they are the largest city unions.“Please make it clear that I don’t agree, that Local 3621 does not agree to any pattern set, because our members are so far behind,” he said, noting that the gap between EMS and FDNY lieutenants is roughly $30,000.
In 2005, the Police Benevolent Association successfully arbitrated raises for police officers by agreeing to give-backs that included lowering starting salariesfor cops who hadn’t yet been hired. The PBA, the city’s largest police union, is currently undergoing statewide arbitration over its contract, which expired in 2017.
“They’d like to see a raise so they can feed themselves, their families. I understand there’s a pattern, that the city has a way of negotiating with certain unions first, but as the lowest-paid agency, we would love to go and have an opportunity to fix these problems already.”Class-Action Lawsuit “The FDNY is committed to fair and equitable pay practices. The case is under review,” a city Law Department spokesman saidThe pay discrepancies, Barzilay and Almojera say, exist because their members are compensated as civilian workers, despite their status as uniformed officers, like firefighters and police officers, and despite facing many of the same risks on the job. In 2020, City Council