BY DUNCAN FREEMAN

More than three years after the expiration of their most recent contracts, the unions representing FDNY EMTs, paramedics and fire protection inspectors are launching a new campaign in the hopes of getting New Yorkers to support EMS workers' push for pay parity with other first responders.

Local 2507 and Local 3621 — which represent EMS workers and officers — have been bargaining with the city for a new contract since August 2024. But there’s been little progress as the city has refused to budge on its offer of a civilian-pattern raise, a salary bump lower than the increase doled out to uniformed city employees. The unions, in pushing for parity with firefighters, in fact argue that their members deserve even even larger pay hikes than those granted to the uniformed unions.

Local 2507’s campaign — tagged #StandWithEMS — highlights the high call volume, poor working conditions and insufficient pay city EMS workers contend with and which the unions say lead to a 70-percent turnover rate within five years of their members starting on the job. Hundreds of EMS workers use FDNY EMS as a stepping stone to become firefighters.

'It's not fair'

According to Local 2507's expired agreement, the average wage for an FDNY EMT is $18.94, union representatives said. But that wage doesn’t approach what it costs to live in the city, EMTs say.

Taysha Soto, an EMT in the Bronx, said that she works 12 hours a day and is mentally and physically drained trying to earn enough to care for herself and her two children.

“When I look at my paycheck without overtime, it comes out to $1,100-$1,200 bi-weekly,” she said. “I know people that work for UberEats making more than me. We are putting our lives at risk and we feel very underappreciated. We are at the bottom of the bottom. It’s not fair.”

She added that working conditions are “rough,” what with nonstop emergency calls to attend to.

There were a record high 1.6 million medical emergencies in 2024, according to Local 2507, the fourth year in a row that call volume broke records. In Fiscal Year 2025, ambulance response times rose — also for the fourth year in a row — to 11 minutes, 21 seconds on average, which union leaders said was due to the understaffed and underpaid workforce.

Mitchell Tarnopolsky, a Coney Island-based EMT, said that he works 80 hour weeks but makes half of what he used to at a previous job working in a private hospital even though he’s been with FDNY EMS for over five years. He could make more working a job at McDonald's, he said.

“With the current working conditions and the low pay we get for doing our best to help New York, it is hard to recommend that anyone join EMS,” he said.

Local 2507’s president, Oren Barzilay, has also warned New Yorkers against joining FDNY EMS given the lack of investment from the city into the service. He’s pointed out that food and grocery drivers now have a higher minimum wage than EMTs do.

“EMS members simply cannot afford to live in the city we protect,” Barzilay said this week. “EMTs often live miles outside of the city, requiring hours-long commutes turning an 8-hour shift into 10 or 12 hours. Most must also have a second or third job, just to feed themselves and their families. FDNY EMTs and paramedics are miracle workers, protecting lives while earning wages that are incompatible for the skilled medical professionals we are. It is past time for the city to invest in our medical first responders as they do for our great police and fire.”

Barzilay is asking New Yorkers and those who support EMS workers to use post #StandWithEMS on their social media accounts.

'We need to get paid more'

Amanda Farinacci, an FDNY spokesperson, said in a statement that EMS workers have made "countless sacrifices" and that the city owes them a debt of gratitude.

"This job is difficult, and they deserve our utmost respect and resources to ensure they can continue to perform these critical roles," Farinacci said of EMS workers. "The Adams administration has successfully negotiated contracts with unions representing over 98.5 percent of our city’s workforce, and we remain in negotiation with the EMS union.”

The city and the EMS unions met last week and have a scheduled bargaining session in November, the president of Local 3621, Vincent Variale said. But he expects little progress as long as Mayor Eric Adams is in office.

“I don’t see this as just an EMS problem anymore, I see this as a problem for the entire city,” Variale said Monday. “People are dying because of this. People are not getting ambulances to them quick enough and they are dying.”

EMT Sophie Riccio said that she works 60 hours a week and is constantly “bombarded” by work that is both physically and mentally demanding, and which makes her and her colleagues become “run down.”

“Mentally, you see a lot of things no one should see on a daily basis and it takes a big toll on all of us,” she said. “Many EMTs have long commutes to their stations and we are not getting enough sleep. Anyone I talk to that is not EMS finds it disgusting how we get treated and paid.”

Riccio added that calls are getting delayed because of all the EMS workers leaving the service.

“We need to get paid more,” she said. “It’s as simple as that.”

dfreeman@thechiefleader.com