A Brooklyn pol is demanding Mayor Eric Adams honor a 2021 marketing campaign promise by elevating metropolis medic salaries on par with different first responders.
Councilman Justin Brannan, a Bay Ridge-based Democrat operating in subsequent 12 months’s comptroller race, accused the Adams administration of treating emergency medical technicians and paramedics as “civilians” on the bargaining desk fairly than “uniformed personnel” reminiscent of firefighters and cops.
“There ought to be no second-class first responders on this metropolis, however what we’ve acquired now’s a caste system in our 911-dispatched uniform providers,” stated Brannan.
“It’s a shame. These aren’t ambulance drivers. They’re avenue medical doctors.”
Each town and Native 2507 of District Council 37, the union representing town’s 4,100 medics, have hit a stalemate in negotiations for a brand new contract and the matter may go to arbitration, sources stated.
Union members have labored with no contract since June 2022 regardless of Adams profitable the union’s endorsement throughout the 2021 mayoral marketing campaign after promising “pay parity” with different first responders, if re-elected.
Firefighters and medics are each a part of the FDNY, however you wouldn’t know by their wage constructions.
The beginning wage for EMTs is $39,386 to $47,016 in comparison with $54,122 for firefighters. After 5 years, EMTs sometimes earn $59,534 to $76,472, in comparison with $105,146 for firefighters.
Brannan, who chairs the Council’s finance committee, stated town has sufficient cash budgeted in “labor reserves” to “make good” on Adams’ vow.
Mayoral spokesperson Amaris Cockfield stated town doesn’t touch upon ongoing negotiations, “however we’re hopeful to achieve a voluntary settlement that’s honest and equitable to each our devoted EMS employees and metropolis taxpayers.”
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