By Greg Latshaw
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Copyright 2006 Tribune Review Publishing Company
Deadlocked with management over wage and health care issues, employees of the Medic Rescue ambulance service in Beaver County have voted to strike June 15.
The workers, part of United Steelworkers Local 8136 in Bridgewater, voted 93-3 Friday to reject management’s offer for a three-year contract that would have increased wages by 5 percent this year and by 2 1/2 percent the next two years, said union spokesman and paramedic David Grogan.
Additionally, the health care plan in the latest proposal would have changed from Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Select Blue to Health America Health Assurance, he said.
A negotiating session is scheduled for Wednesday.
“The added expenses of the proposed health care plan would drastically cost employees more than the gains from the pay raises,” said Grogan, citing an increased co-pay plan of $10 to $35 and new limitations on medications.
Medic Rescue General Manager Patrick Sherin disagreed, saying the employees are already the highest-paid nongovernment service in Beaver County.
A strike would not shut down operations, he said, because local ambulance services and Medic Rescue management would help fill EMS duties.
There are 130 unionized employees — 47 full time — at Medic Rescue, a nonprofit emergency medical service that serves 38 municipalities in central Beaver County, Sherin said. There are also other ambulance services in the county operated by volunteer fire departments and nonprofit groups.
The union is seeking a three-year contract with the Select Blue health care plan. It is seeking an 8 percent pay increase this year and a 4 percent increase in the second and third years of the contract, Grogan said.
The union’s contract expired June 1.