News

My name is Michelle Prentice, and I'm a field paramedic and field training officer in Maricopa County, Arizona. Our biggest fear is running out of personal protective equipment like masks and gowns.
The breadth of the crisis that the 4,500 members of AFSCME Local 2507 (District Council 37), which represents the EMTs, paramedics and fire inspectors of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), are facing is unparalleled.
Davidson works for American Medical Response (AMR), a private company that provides medical transportation services in communities across the country. Even as she and her co-workers are expected to battle a pandemic without precedent, they have to fight for even a minimum amount of respect from their employer.
Independence, MO — It’s clearly a problem when 20 percent of a company’s workforce vanishes within 16 months, especially when that company is a local unit of the nation’s largest private provider of emergency services.
Early on the morning of July 20, as most New Yorkers were preparing to go to work, emergency medical technician and DC 37 Local 2507 member Niall O’Shaughnessy was already on the job – literally up to his neck in the treacherous, choppy waters of the Hudson River, trying to save a young woman who had thrown herself in only minutes before.

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif. — Paramedics and EMTs in Riverside County have reached an agreement with American Medical Response that would provide 18 percent pay increases over three and half years, protect health insurance, and perhaps most importantly, create a professional practice committee to give emergency care professionals a voice in patient care issues.

Communities nationwide honored the commitment and sacrifice of emergency medical professionals last week, with many calling for the nation’s largest private EMS provider to start respecting its workforce.

Drowning is a leading cause of death for children under the age of 5 and with education it’s 100 percent preventable, according to Riverside County Injury Prevention Services. The Local 4911 members who respond to these tragic 911 calls recently launched Splash Medics, a nonprofit organization to promote water safety education.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Yolanda Matos-McClintock, an EMS dispatcher and AFSCME shop steward, comes to the rescue on a daily basis. Her story, recently featured in the Sacramento Business Journal, highlights the importance of emergency response and how being in a union provides strength.

We don't need to wait for the next movie from Marvel to see a hero in action. Every day emergency professionals like dispatcher Yolanda Matos-McClintock of Sacramento come to the rescue for thousands of Americans.  Matos-McClintock was recently featured in the Sacramento Business Journal, highlighting the challenges she faces and how being in a union provides strength. Click here to read the article.

One moment, Sami Abed, president of United EMS Workers-AFSCME Local 4911, was just a passenger on a United Airlines flight. The next moment he was a central figure in a medical emergency.