Mayor Adrian Fenty is facing a fight on his plan to consolidate the D.C. fire department and ambulance service, a plan critics say is a back-door attempt to bust a troublesome union.
Fenty has introduced legislation that he says will close the wage and pension gap between firefighters and paramedics.
But the bill would require paramedics to train as firefighters, too. The paramedics union is crying foul.
“If passed, it will result in busting the union,” union leader Ken Lyons told The Examiner. “There’s no doubt.”
The fire and emergency management system has promised the public that every new employee will be trained as both firefighter and paramedic. About 180 paramedics remain on staff and Lyons says the transfers will force the paramedics to join another union that can’t protect their interests.
“We do support the individual’s choice. They should not be forced to put on the firefighter’s uniform,” Lyons said.
Fenty spokeswoman Mafara Hobson sent a terse e-mail denying that her boss wanted to break up the paramedics union. She declined further comment.
Councilman Phil Mendelson is listening to the paramedics. He’s the chairman of the public safety committee and on Tuesday passed his own version of the bill, which would allow the orphaned paramedics to opt into the new pay and pension system without becoming full-fledged firefighters.
“The goal is to have one, all hazards agency,” Mendelson said. “But these providers were hired for their medical skills and to change the requirements now would be unfair. Besides, that’s not what’s been contemplated.”
Mendelson’s bill now heads to the council for a vote.
The stakes are high for the city. When retired New York Times journalist David Rosenbaum died as the result of a mugging, his family sued D.C., claiming that the paramedics who treated him were negligent. The family settled the suit on the condition that the District reform its rescue service.
Among the recommendations of a blue-ribbon panel, known as the Rosenbaum Task Force, was that the department close the wage gap between the two branches of fire and EMS. A paramedic makes between $10,000 and $20,000 per year less than the average firefighter, Lyons said.
If the bill is enacted, it will also put the paramedics on the city’s police and fire pension system, which would be much more lucrative for the medics.
