Tuesday and Wednesday are important days for Essex County paramedics.

The County’s more than 200 paramedics will be electing a single union to represent their interests within a new county-run EMS service.

The county is amalgamating its two private, one public, and one volunteer EMS service into one single EMS service. This process will be complete in January 2009.

The final step is for the Windsor-Essex paramedics to vote on which of the three current unions, SEIU, CUPE or OPSEU, will represent all paramedics in the new amalgamated service.

This is good for Essex County. 

Paramedics’ jobs are difficult. They face personal risks every day. There is stress. Burnout is common. But the public’s safety is what matters most to paramedics.

That is why SEIU’s paramedics alerted the County as far back as October 2003 that the multiple EMS service model was broken.

The County was not to blame. Essex County and all other municipalities in Ontario had to pick up the pieces when the province’s EMS services were downloaded to municipalities in 2001.

The cracks in the service have been evident since then, and arguably before that. But whatever the cause, the service across the County needed to be streamlined.

There were four distinct employment contracts for the four different EMS services. Paramedics were not treated equally by their employers or by the three unions representing them.

For example, part time paramedics have a different status depending upon which employer they worked for and the union that represent them. Only SEIU and Sun Parlour Ambulance paramedics treated their full and part time paramedics equally. For instance, SEIU’s part timers earn seniority at the same rate as their full time co-workers and can capitalize on their years of service when applying for a full time position.

SEIU also argued that amalgamation of EMS services would save the County money – money that could go into improving service delivery, toward new equipment, or perhaps improving wages and benefits. Just the fact that administration had to be done in quadruplicate was a foolish drain on resources. 

Streamlining the service in the County would also benefit dispatch. One service will be a critical, possibly life-saving improvement, especially during periods of heavy demand or public emergencies.

Rationalizing union representation for all our paramedics makes sense too. Fairness across the county is the right thing to do. Multiple employers have in the past diminished our collective voice and compromised employment gains that paramedics should have already won.

An example is ‘NRA 60’, or Normal Retirement Age 60. In 2005 the province designated paramedics as a public safety occupation, giving them the same status as firefighters and police officers. Both have a normal retirement age of 60 years. Yet, paramedics do not have the right to a NRA 60 provision.

Stronger union representation can help paramedics win important occupational provisions like NRA 60. Paramedics deserve that as First Responders.

This vote is also important to our community.

Few people realize that the union our paramedics choose to represent them may impact their lives.

For example, unions help our communities enormously by raising public health and safety standards.

SEIU’s Provincial Paramedic Committee, for example, led the campaign in Essex County for the mandatory use of safety syringes in the County’s health care facilities, including EMS services. As a result, paramedics and patients are safer today, being far less likely to suffer a needle-stick injury and contracting a life-threatening disease such as hepatitis C or HIV.
 
What’s more, SEIU paramedics’ early example of leadership helped persuade the Ontario government that mandatory provincial safety regulations (enacted Sep. 2008) would save lives – and money.

In real terms, SEIU paramedic’s efforts are now helping reduce the 30,000 needle-stick injuries reported in Ontario every year.

Public advocacy for better health and safety regulations is only one example of how our paramedics’ choice can affect our community.

The choice paramedics will make this week goes far beyond comparisons of wage and benefits packages. They will be deciding which union is going to deliver the representation they deserve professionally and which union will best support their public advocacy goals. 

Ian Nash
Chair, Provincial Paramedic Committee
SEIU Local 1 Canada