Sean Philip Cotter
Boston Herald
BOSTON — The EMS union is slamming the Wu administration over contract negotiations, saying City Hall’s looking to pay them “less than administrative assistants.”
“The inequities in pay and benefits faced by our EMTs is threatening to impact our ability to keep city residents and visitors safe” said EMS Union President Matthew Anderson in a Tuesday press release. “COVID-19 highlighted systemic and racial inequities with accessing healthcare but showed the true value of our EMTs and Paramedics who not only cared for the sick and injured but were
able to vaccinate thousands against COVID when the city was in need.”
EMS unions officials declined to say how much the city was offering exactly other than to characterize it as “considerably less than what the City agreed to with every other Union that has signed.”
Also in the press release taking aim at City Hall, the union, which is part of the larger Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association umbrella, said members of Boston EMS make 33% to 50% less than cops and firefighters, which for years has been a sore spot.
The press release says the city offered them “less than administrative assistants” in City Hall as turnover reaches “catastrophic” levels in the EMS force.
Mayor Michelle Wu’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment. The city has inked a few contracts in Wu’s first half year as mayor, including with the teachers and bus drivers, but the assorted first-responder contracts remain out and under negotiation, including with EMS, firefighters and the three police unions.
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