Blame Albany Bureaucrats for “Pickpocketing” NY City’s Emergency Medical First Responders
Says Public Safety Time Bomb Waiting to Detonate
Without any exemptions being granted by the state or city for this Sunday’s implementation of the MTA’s $9 congestion pricing toll, FDNY EMS Local 2507, the union representing New York City’s 4,100 Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and Paramedics, is advising the approximately 270 members assigned to Midtown and Lower Manhattan to transfer to stations outside of the zone or to other boroughs.
The union is urging members to submit their transfer paperwork urgently, given the steep fiscal implications – $45 week – for its members, who are the lowest paid of any of New York City’s front line first responders.
FDNY EMT’s earn just $18.94/hr., only $2.44 over the city’s 2025 minimum wage and less than the $20/hr. minimum wage mandated by City Hall for app-based food delivery workers across New York City.
New York’s congestion pricing law is set to begin seconds past midnight on January 5, 2025. Under the congestion pricing plan, cars would pay a peak fee of $9 from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends.
“Already suffering with poverty wages, and the mayor’s complete refusal to pay us a true living wage, 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 FDNY EMS Local 2507.
“We are mandated by our employer, the city where to work and we have zero option to work remote. FDNY’s financially struggling EMT’s and Paramedics can simply no longer afford to protect the inhabitants of Manhattan from 60th Street to the Battery, and our members have been asking for transfers out of the three stations serving Midtown and Lower Manhattan – Station 4, Station 7 and Station 8,”
Some 270 EMS staff are assigned to those stations in Division 1, which include:
- Station 4, just North of the South Street Seaport.
- Station 7 at 23rd Street & 10th Avenue, under the Highline.
- Station 8 at East 26th Street & 1st Avenue.
Transfers are always based on seniority, meaning the most experienced medical first responders in Manhattan’s Division 1 are expected to leave Midtown and Lower Manhattan stripping the zone of its most seasoned medical staff.
Further, this new cost being mandated on the struggling Emergency Medical First Responder workforce could further propel the agency’s already sky-high 50 percent EMS job attrition rate. EMS attrition exceeds 30% after three years and 50% after five years, due to on-the-job hardships, poor working conditions and excessively low wages.
The suggestion by transit advocates of city workers with traditional 9-5 jobs taking mass transit might sound like an option to some, but it is illogical for FDNY EMS members, given the 24/7/365 nature of the work. Members are routinely assigned to midnight shifts, often compelled without notice by the FDNY to work double tours, so most EMS members cannot rely on public transit to commute to their stations.
“These heroes of the pandemic have been completely forgotten by New York’s elected officials. Already they are barely making minimum wage, many are forced to survive on food stamps, handouts, sleep on the couches or basements of friends and relatives, because of the sky-high costs of New York. Congestion pricing without exemptions for FDNY EMS is a public safety time bomb waiting to detonate,” warned Barzilay.
“Mark my words it will likely have a large, negative impact on public safety that will soon enough lead to a rush by Albany and City Hall’s countless and well-paid government funded spin doctors to point the blame and fingers at each other, as they always do. Actions speak louder than words and this tax is a lose-lose for the FDNY EMS and public safety.”