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The Uniformed Fire Officers' Association has proposed in contract talks that its members take on some of the administrative duties of Emergency Medical Service officers.
UFOA President Peter L. Gorman said that Tom Eppinger, the president of EMS Officers Local 3621 of District Council 37, had told him that "he wants to get his people into the field more," which could be achieved if they were freed from the pa?perwork and office supervision that often keeps them bound to their desks.
EMS Unions: No Way
But a spokesman for Mr. Eppinger said the desire to get EMS Lieutenants and Captains responding to more emergency calls was not something he wanted to do by having their office duties commandeered by fire officers.
"He unequivocally opposes any move by the UFOA to encroach upon the work of another union," Robert A. Ungar, the spokesman and lobbyist for both Local 3621 and Local 2507 of DC 37, which represents Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics, said on behalf of Mr. Eppinger.
He continued, "While it is true that some EMS officers would like to do some more field work, they do not want another AFL-CIO union en?croaching upon their work , and, ultimately, their jobs."
Both EMS unions have long contended that the EMS Bureau of the Fire Department is short-staffed and have called for more hiring and promotions. During the administration of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, they charged that the uniformed ranks were deliberately kept low to justify greater use of private ambulance services, the largest of which became a major contributor to Mr. Giuliani's re-election run in 1997 and his aborted run for U.S. Senate three years later.
Smoother With Bloomberg
The EMS unions have had a much smoother relationship with Mayor Bloomberg, and were among the first to endorse him this year. The UFOA gave him its support shortly before the general election.
Mr. Gorman suggested that his members take on some of the EMS duties in the hope of getting a bargain?ing credit for the extra productivity this would entail. The union also indicated it was willing to give up representation of Chief of Department, the FDNY's highest uniformed title, for what Mr. Gorman described as a mix of bargaining credit and additional protection for two other ranks it represents, Battalion Chief and Deputy Chief.
City officials stepped gingerly around the negotiations and the controversy brewing between the UFOA and the EMS unions.
Labor Relations Commissioner James F. Hanley would not comment regarding the UFOA proposals except to say, "We don't have any active negotiations."
The Fire Department's chief spokesman, Frank Gribbon, declined comment.
Hayden in Favor?
One veteran FDNY official acknowledged that the Chief of Department, Peter Hayden, believed supervision of EMS personnel could be improved if fire officers were given a role. But this official, who spoke conditioned on anonymity, brushed off Mr. Ungar's assertion that such a change was part of a Fire Department "plan to rearrange, by force, EMS."
The impetus for the shift in supervisory responsibilities, the FDNY official said, came from Mr. Gorman and was spurred primarily by his need to match the wage terms agreed to by the Uniformed Firefighters' As?sociation without cutting the pay scale for future members as that union did.
In order to reduce the costs to the city of a 17.5-percent raise over 50 months, the UFO agreed to a sharp cut in starting salary and a slowing of the progression to maximum pay. Firefighters hired after January 2006 will earn $55,000 less in base pay dur?ing their first six years on the job than those hired at that time will receive over a similar period.
Gorman's Dilemma
That deal, which was heavily influenced by a contract arbitration award in June for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, poses a larger dilemma for Mr. Gorman. Unless he wanted the entire burden of a reduced starting salary to fall on future Lieutenants-by far the most populous rank in the union-he would have to force current members to en?dure a reduced pay scale when they were promoted to the ranks of Captain and above.
A deal that hurt only future Lieutenants could limit Mr. Gorman's long-term future as UFOA president; one that distributed the pain through the ranks would pose immediate political jeopardy.
"Pete's got a big problem; he wants to solve it," the FDNY official said. "The idea of him restructuring those salary levels is going to create problems for a lot of his members. You're not talking about the ‘unborn'; these guys are born already."
`Chief of D' Devalued
Mr. Gorman's proposal to give up representation of the Chief of Department title is less perilous politically, especially since it would be contingent upon support from the Bloomberg administration for legislation that would prevent broad-banding of the Battalion Chief and Deputy Chief titles.
Chief of Department is both the highest title represented by any municipal union and the highest that is part of the competitive civil service, thanks to the UFOA's success in a past court battle in requiring that the FDNY continue to promote to it using a standard exam. Other uniformed agencies like the Police and Correction Departments have top commanders a rung or two below Chief of Department chosen at the discre?tion of their Commissioners, although some of those titles, like Deputy Inspector in the NYPD and Warden in the jail system, are represented by supervisory unions.
Tenure Elusive
The value to the UFOA of maintaining the current status of Chief of Department has diminished, however, during the past two mayoral administrations as a result of decisions by Mr. Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg not to give tenure to the person serving in the title.
Chief Hayden is known to have angered City Hall earlier this year by publicly criticizing the Mayor's plan to give the NYPD primacy at non-fire emergencies until the possibility of a terrorist link is ruled out, but less outspoken Chiefs of Department have also been replaced at the point when their probationary period expired and continuing them in the job would have required granting them tenure.
Given that reality, Captain Gorman said, it made sense for him to explore the possibility of giving up representation of the title if he could secure legislation that would ensure that some future administration would not repeat Mr. Giuliani's failed attempt to broad-band the Battalion Chief and Deputy Chief titles. Such broadbanding would expand the Fire Commissioner's promotional discretion at the expense of the civil service system.
`Reduce Need for Stretch'
Any financial credit the city threw into the deal, the UFOA leader added, would reduce the need for "a severe [pay] stretch for our members or a loss of vacation pay or other benefits."
He said it was clear from Mr. Bloomberg's first term that the Mayor-who closed six fire companies in 2003 and has not sought to reopen any of them even as the city's financial situation improved dramatically wants to streamline FDNY operations at a time when structural fires continue to decline.
Mr. Gorman argued that it was not feasible to close additional companies, and so the most logical alternative was to make greater use of existing firefighting personnel. If his officers did EMS supervision in addition to their roles in fire companies, "It's better for the department."
‘Unions Can't Close Eyes'
Top FDNY officials not directly involved with the EMS Bureau, he contended, "don't have the slightest idea of what's going on at EMS. If Bloomberg is serious about an overall merger of these two agencies-and after what he did with the Board of Education, you have to take him, seriously-I think he can get this done, and labor ought to be involved in this. If labor closes its eyes to the future of the fire service, everybody loses."
'While there have been rumblings that the Fire Department would like to move toward having future Firefighters schooled to handle all aspects of EMT duties as well (currently only Firefighters assigned to engine companies handle medical calls), the EMS unions have been more intent on getting their members paid on a par with firefighters. A law approved by the City Council over a mayoral veto granting them uniformed status has been upheld in court, but the city is appealing that ruling.
Mr. Ungar said the EMS unions are skeptical that fire officers would carry out EMS-related responsibilities.
'What If There's a Fire?'
"If [fire] company officers are supposed to supervise, what happens when the EMS workers show up for work and the company is out on a run" he asked.
A particularly dicey aspect of the transfer of power, Mr. Ungar said, involves the supervision of the locker from which drugs, including morphine, are dispensed to ambulance crews. Once that chore is completed, Mr. Ungar said, "You have to put the drugs back in the locker, and you really have to keep count. An EMS officer is not going to let the inventory get away, because this is what he does, but a fire officer may not be as careful., particularly if he gets a run."
If any quantity of drugs turns up missing, Mr. Ungar said, "Everybody in the firehouse, including the officers, will have to be drug-tested."
Uneasy Neighbors
In contrast to UFA President Stephen J. Cassidy, who during his first successful election campaign three years ago vowed to oppose any FDNY effort to have firefighters and EMS workers share quarters, Captain Gorman accepts it. He contended that the Bloomberg administration had made it apparent that such commingling which already exists at a firehouse in Rockaway and a recently opened one in Staten Island-will grow more common.
Mr. Ungar countered that the FDNY's experience to date should make it think hard before expanding the shared living arrangements. While there have been no major problems at the Staten Island firehouse, he said, "Rockaway remains a disaster. Separate refrigerators, separate everything. The firefighters are miserable, the EMS personnel are miserable."
Part of that is inevitable given the reality that firefighters are more likely to be able to spend part of their night tours sleeping if they are working in less-active areas, while EMS crews are more prone to leave quarters and return in the middle of the night.
Cultural Tensions
Mr. Ungar contended that aside from "the clash of professions and the clash of modus operandi," there was an additional tension created by the differences in ethnic and gender makeup of the two forces. EMS is far more diverse, both racially and in the number of women, than firefighters who are 92-percent white and 99-percent male.
The EMS union spokesman said attitudes in some firehouses haven't changed that much from the days 20 years ago when female firefighters encountered angry resistance and minority firefighters weren't always welcomed.
"The first time that an EMS person walks in [to a firehouse], all it takes is one guy to shoot off his mouth and it's going to set off all sorts of [Equal Employment Opportunity] problems," Mr. Ungar said. "You're not talking about 26 female firefighters; you're talking about a diverse 3,000-member work force."
He concluded, "We think it's best left alone; that the EMS officers should continue to supervise EMS. We think it's possible that the UFOA doesn't fully understand what they're getting themselves into. It's really a ridiculous way for the UFOA to pick up some fractional point of productivity.”
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