The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) professionals at First Responders EMS in Sacramento have voted overwhelmingly to move forward with United EMS Workers-AFSCME Local 4911. Mail ballots were counted Monday at the National Labor Relations Board’s regional office with seventy-six percent voting to join United EMS Workers.

“We’re standing together because we want EMS to be seen as a real profession, not just a stepping stone,” said Crystal Forschen, a paramedic at First Responder EMS. “The way we get it done is by having a strong, democratic, and accountable union.”

Their victory is part of a movement of EMS workers uniting across the country with AFSCME to have a voice in their profession. Three-thousand workers in Northern California and New England joined United EMS Workers last year. Another hundred EMS professionals employed by AMR in Lake Havasu, Arizona are voting Tuesday, and their ballots will be counted in the evening.

For more details, click here to view the article in the Sacramento Business Journal.