Yahoo! News
Carl Campanile and Natalie O’Neill | Jan. 3, 2025
The union representing city EMTs and paramedics urged its workers Friday to flee stations in Manhattan’s controversial congestion pricing zone to avoid getting hit by the $9 toll when driving to work.
Many of the first responders are paid just $18.94 an hour — the lowest of any frontline workers citywide — and can’t afford to pay $45 a week just to get to their jobs, said FDNY EMS Local 2507.
“New York City’s emergency medical first responders are now about to be pickpocketed by a state agency and its new MTA’s driving tax,” said Oren Barzilay, president of the union, which reps 4,100 workers.
“We are mandated by our employer, the city, where to work and we have zero option to work remote.”
To avoid getting fleeced by the fee, the union encouraged the approximately 270 EMS workers assigned to stations in Midtown and Lower Manhattan to transfer to ones in other parts of the city.n pricing zone to avoid getting hit by the $9 toll when driving to work.