JEMS
Chris Sommerfeldt – New York Daily News
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has yet to make good on an election-year promise to boost wages for FDNY emergency medical services workers, with new information emerging about his embattled confidante Ingrid Lewis-Martin pushing hard against that vow while still at City Hall, the Daily News has learned.
On the 2021 campaign trail, Adams pledged he would as mayor see to it the FDNY’s emergency medical technicians and paramedics get paid as much as firefighters, who start with salaries around $54,000.
“For years our EMTs, paramedics & fire inspectors have been shamefully denied pay parity — that comes to an end when I become Mayor,” Adams, an ex-NYPD captain, tweeted on June 4, 2021, echoing calls from union leaders who say their members’ starting salaries of just about $36,000 have driven them into poverty and caused a staffing crisis that’s impacting emergency services response times.
Oren Barzilay, a FDNY EMS worker who serves as the president of one of the department’s emergency response unions, said he had a similar conversation with Lewis-Martin during negotiations with the administration in July 2024, just weeks before the corruption investigation into the chief adviser landed in the public spotlight.
“She said that we don’t deserve it and that our jobs are not as dangerous as the (firefighters),” said Barzilay, who shared a copy of an invite to the July 15, 2024 Zoom meeting in which Lewis-Martin allegedly shot down his push for better pay.
“I was taken aback by it because we had never heard the mayor say anything like that and our jobs are just as dangerous – we walk on the same calls as police officers, the same calls as firefighters,” Barzilay added, noting his members have been in shootouts and fires and also face the risk of contracting diseases when they respond to certain calls.
“You think they should get paid similar like as a police officer or a fireman?” Lewis-Martin can be heard asking in the recording, which was provided to The News by one of the advocates in attendance on condition of anonymity.
After an advocate replied, “yes,” Lewis-Martin shot back: “No.”
Lewis-Martin, who was indicted on an additional set of corruption charges last month alleging she used her City Hall powers to do government favors in exchange for bribes, declined to comment this month.
A source close to Lewis-Martin said she wasn’t aware of Adams’ campaign pledge when she spoke to the advocates and Barzilay. The source also said Lewis-Martin had no official role in the contract negotiations with the EMS unions and didn’t talk to Adams or other administration officials about the matter.
Kayla Mamelak, Adams’ spokeswoman, also said Lewis-Martin didn’t attend any official contract negotiations with the EMS unions.
As to the current status of the talks, which appear to be at a standstill, Mamelak said Adams “has a proven track record of reaching fair labor agreements with our represented employees.”
The negotiations have dragged on as Barzilay and other union heads continue to demand Adams make good on his campaign vow.
So far, the administration isn’t budging.