A wave of 22,000 potential city employees layoffs in the fall could decimate FDNY’s already strained EMTS and paramedics, reports state.
By Matt Troutman, Patch Staff
Aug 20, 2020
NEW YORK CITY — The city’s already-strained EMTs and paramedics will be decimated if Mayor Bill de Blasio’s predicted 22,000 budget-related layoffs can’t be averted, according to reports.
Nearly 400 EMS workers in the FDNY are on the chopping block, warned Oren Barzilay, who heads EMS Local 2507. Barzilay paired the warning with a grim prediction, first reported by the New York Post.
“The response times will go through the roof,” Barzilay said, according to the Post. “That would put people at risk. People will die.”
De Blasio recently renewed his warning that the city faces a coronavirus-related budget crunch. Without federal or state help, he said the city will be forced to cut 22,000 employees starting Oct. 1.
Hopes of federal stimulus have completely dissolved, de Blasio recently said. He said the city is currently reaching out to the state for borrowing authority that can help close a $9 billion budget shortfall.
City EMS workers have been on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, Barzilay told the Post. He warned about the impact cuts will have if the virus makes a resurgence.