Ambulance Strike

Support your mates in Oz

Log onto the link bellow, all you have to do is click a button to help out. They need 480 more supportive responses to reach their target for presentation to the health minister and Ambulance Victoria.

Help your Aussie mates out..if you do we'll stop trying to get you to eat Vegemite...we promise;).

http://responsetime.org.au/content/stand-our-ambos
 
Melclin,

we now have a fight on another front. Not only have we been dogged with a minimal pay rise, but now the NSWFB want to increase their first response role to justify their pay rise.

The new FBEU stated goals also see them want to encompass the Rural Fire Service & force FBEU membership onto them.

Please let your guys know so they can stand with us.
 
Kookaburra said:
Meclin, I would like to post about this in another forum... would you be able to summarize what the shifts are like in layperson speak? I want to make sure I get all the info correctly, and I'm not familiar enough with the shorthand you're using to feel confident translating it into non-EMS-speak.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure its and I think this is what you want to know,
Day 1: 10 hour day shift
Day 2: 10 hour day shift
Day 3: 14 hour night shift
Day 4: 14 hour night shift
Day 5-8: Rest

but the thing is they have to often work over time and then they are very tired for the next shift. Especially between the Day 3-4 shift.
 
And there are a lot of different shift structures as well. Peak period shifts, and so on, 12 hour rotations versus the 10/14 etc. I'm not sure that it's just the basic shift structure that is responsible for all the problems.
 
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High Speed Chaser said:
They won



My understanding was that between the 2 night shifts paramedics would work over time and not have time for a proper break
Click to expand...

Yeah, undoubtedly, but I don't think it was just that.

Also this win might leave MICA in the lurch a bit. It doesn't do anything to fix the problems with rostering and dispatch. And the pay raise is still not commensurate with their skill level and work load, compared to the ALS level.
 
Melclin said:
Log onto the link bellow, all you have to do is click a button to help out. They need 480 more supportive responses to reach their target for presentation to the health minister and Ambulance Victoria.

Help your Aussie mates out..if you do we'll stop trying to get you to eat Vegemite...we promise;).

http://responsetime.org.au/content/stand-our-ambos
Click to expand...

EDIT: I know they got their small win last week, feel free to post these anyways, they need ~173 signatures still.

Posted this on my twitter, along with this quote,

Tweet 1: "Nearly 20 percent of Victorian ambos found that 75% made mistakes due to xtreme fatigue. Avg ~6 hours sleep nightly, often less than that."

Tweet 2: Aussie Ambos need your support! Sign their petition for fair schedule practices & safe working environment. http://bit.ly/441RuJ

Feel free to copy my tweets. No RT Needed. They're crafted to fit 140 characters.
 
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Cheers mate. I'm sure everybody's support is still appreciated, despite the.. 'win'.

The sentiment will be returned as best it can, come your fight.
 
I saw the news article the other day about the Victorian Ambo's with tape across their mouths making a united stand!
Good on them!
It's a shame that the workers have to take a stand about down times.

In NZ, the Government were the ones leading the push to reduce the amount of hours Emergency workers, were looking at becoming a danger due to driver fatigue.
Maybe this case in Dunedin opened their eyes a bit, to the problems within the ambulance service. As Attached.......
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_national_story_skin/437447?format=html
The emergency services were only one part of this policy. There were too many cases of MVC's in NZ, due to drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

The ambulance service asked for an extension, when the policy was made by the Government... Policy As Attached.
http://www.landtransport.govt.nz/factsheets/02.html
With strong penalties if the laws are broken.
It was going to be hard to work around the volunteers as well.
The time they did at their normal paid job would be added to the time they were on duty. Many go and do an ambulance shift after a day at work.
Also the stations that paid crews work long shifts. 4 days on, 4 days off.


I hope it all pans out for you guys in Victoria, and they realise the worth of their Ambo's!

Cheers Enjoynz
 
rescue99 said:
Historically, Nursing, PD and PD all had to organize to get anywhere. It isn't all about education in the end.
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A union is not going to make a doctor or other medical professions respect those without adequate education. You can wave a union card all you want but if you aren't educated enough to keep up with the challenges of medicine and patient care or the requirements of the government to provide a quality service of what good is it?

The PDs have also realized this and some have increased their educational standards for entry level as well.

The more educated a profession is the less likely they will need a union to do their talking. Some bargain through their professional associations which do surveys of equally educated professionals. Thus, healthcare professions that have higher than a 4 year degree (and many with a 4 year degree) are rarely represented by a union. Also, not all nurses are respresented by a union.

Now imagine in the U.S. if a survey was done with other healthcare (or other) workers who have 120 hours of training. They might find that some in EMS are over paid. They would also have a difficult time finding other healthcare workers with that little training. If you want to compare at the professional level, that starts at the 2 year degree (required). Even the RNs are noticing that their education minimum is outdated when compared to the allied health professions. It won't be long until they can not use education as a bases for their pay.

On the note of this thread, it is interesting that 14 hours is considered a long day. I do remember one U.S. ambulance company that tried to organize with a union known for representing truckers. The first thing the union wanted to do was to get decent road time hours established. The EMT(P)s quickly nixed organizing since few wanted to give up 24 hour shifts (and several in a row) even if they didn't get any sleep and ran their tails off.
 
VentMedic said:
A union is not going to make a doctor or other medical professions respect those without adequate education.

The more educated a profession is the less likely they will need a union to do their talking. Some bargain through their professional associations which do surveys of equally educated professionals. Thus, healthcare professions that have higher than a 4 year degree (and many with a 4 year degree) are rarely represented by a union. Also, not all nurses are respresented by a union.

Now imagine in the U.S. if a survey was done with other healthcare (or other) workers who have 120 hours of training. They might find that some in EMS are over paid. They would also have a difficult time finding other healthcare workers with that little training. If you want to compare at the professional level, that starts at the 2 year degree (required). Even the RNs are noticing that their education minimum is outdated when compared to the allied health professions. It won't be long until they can not use education as a bases for their pay.

On the note of this thread, it is interesting that 14 hours is considered a long day. I do remember one U.S. ambulance company that tried to organize with a union known for representing truckers. The first thing the union wanted to do was to get decent road time hours established. The EMT(P)s quickly nixed organizing since few wanted to give up 24 hour shifts (and several in a row) even if they didn't get any sleep and ran their tails off.
Click to expand...

I'm fairly sure the respect of doctors is not a problem here. I've seen nothing but respect and I've never heard of it being a problem. In fact a few times Doctors have stood alongside paramedics in disputes with management. One example that comes to mind is the head of cardiology of a hospital publically opposing the SRU or medic fly car idea as I suppose you would call it, in one area because he respected the MICA (intensive care) ability to perform their role how they dictated, and he agreed with them that dual intensive care trucks were essential to pt care and crucial to their interaction with his department.

I don't think 14 hours alone is considered a prohibitively long shift, its more that there's not enough time in between the fourteen hours that causes difficulties and that there's some complex interaction of other rosters that builds fatigue over time. Besides, regardless of any pissing contest about who has the worst deal, there is still a problem here with fatigue that needs to be addressed. It's silly to say well in America in some place they do X hours so it must be alright.

I agree with for the most part about educated people not needing a union to fight their battles. However, I do think paramedics are in a somewhat unique position in that while their job requires a great deal of education, organisationally there are a lot of similarities to more uneducated roles, like the police. Similar to the idea of an army officer, they have 4-5 years of formal education but almost no ability to dictate working conditions or pay.
 
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