AMR Riverside Strike!

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DrParasite

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garuntee the strike is happening talking to the 10-15 amr employees i know. all are voting today.
So you went from garuntee (the word is actually guarantee), to this
Spoke to a friend, they did not go on strike Today waiting to hear why.
So your credibility on knowing what's going on isn't really all that inspiring.

In case you were wondering, strikes in healthcare 1) rarely work 2) when they do work, they often have unintended consequences, and 3) make it hard for those employees, who are currently underpaid and often living paycheck to paycheck, to go on strike, where their personal finances will get even tighter with all the unpaid bills. It gets even worse when you have family and are the breadwinner for your entire family (spouse and kids).

The threat of a strike is often more effective, as it forces management to take the demands of the union seriously, especially when they calculate how much money they will lose, or how much they will need to spend to mitigate the strike. Plus the negative PR, but in reality, as long as they don't get sued, or lose too much money, hospital management won't lose sleep over it.

It's poor management to not have contingency plans, especially in healthcare. At the last hospital nurses strike I was swept up in (EMS wasn't part of the union, but we had nurses who worked with us who were unionized), the hospital had professional strike breaking nurses that staffed at the hospital the day the strike started, with nursing management personnel working on the units and training the temp staff. Business as usual continued, but the hospital was staffed with out of towners, so things didn't run as smoothly. Some striking nurses found other jobs at other hospitals and never returned, but at the end, the strike ended, and a lot of the capital improvements and money for raises, new staff, and newly created positions, ended up going to pay the strike expenses.

As long as AMR can move people from another division to cover the strikers, and they don't break any contracts, they won't care much. Yeah, it's inconvenient, yeah, they will need to pay OT, but I guarantee no one in AMR's upper management will lose sleep over it, at least no more than their regular staffing issues.

Listen, I'm pro union, support labor, think EMS unions are a good thing (provided management is willing to work with labor on a good contract). But I'm also a realist, have seen what happens when public safety and healthcare strike, and know that in an industry full of people who are using EMS as a stepping stone until something else, where they will change companies in a heartbeat because another places pays more, and who live paycheck to paycheck, striking and losing that paycheck is not as appealing as you think.

But maybe I'm wrong, and you guys will strike, and AMR's management will roll over and give you everything you want, conditions will improve drastically, and there will be no unintended consequences. Maybe Riverside County Ca will be the anomaly, in all of healthcare...

or maybe AMR will lose the contract lay everyone off, another low quality for profit company will get the contract, hire all the former AMR staff for lower pay and worse conditions (because we all need to work), and things will be even worse. Or maybe AMR will just pay people from other divisions OT, use them as strike breaking providers, and after a month, and all the Riverside employee's mortgages and rents come do, and they decided they need that income to put a roof over their heads and feed their family....

Good luck.
 
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BASICallyEMT

BASICallyEMT

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Goal was never to strike. Like you said, it's to show management we are tired of their nonsense and we can be united as a workforce... AMR already scheduled a bargaining meeting for next week, looks like its heading in the right direction to me... Hundreds of votes already placed with today and tomorrow left. 💪
 
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BASICallyEMT

BASICallyEMT

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But maybe I'm wrong, and you guys will strike, and AMR's management will roll over and give you everything you want, conditions will improve drastically, and there will be no unintended consequences. Maybe Riverside County Ca will be the anomaly, in all of healthcare...
And it wouldn't be an anomaly since other divisions have already fought AMR and won.
 

Tigger

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My limited experience with EMS unions left a pretty bland taste. An organizer came into our AMR op and just embarrassed himself repeatedly to the point that the employees refused to even hold a vote to organize. He had no ability to "sell" the benefits of organizing and his only point was to repeatedly emphasize protection from bad/punitive management, which was not really an issue at our operation. We were short staffed and underpaid, but that was not something he could seem to grasp in the pre-organization meetings. He also had no written communication skills and every email made me question the union's ability to ever hold a negotiation with professional management teams. Meanwhile management capitalized on this to bring "raises" (that hadn't happened in three years) to everyone while also adding that a contract might result in a lot of "perks" going away.

I'm an IAFF member now, and while I do not support most of their positions regarding EMS, I do support the huge amount of resources they bring to my local to help us with our negotiations to get our first contract (CBAs are very rare in Colorado).
 
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BASICallyEMT

BASICallyEMT

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Or maybe AMR will just pay people from other divisions OT, use them as strike breaking providers, and after a month, and all the Riverside employee's mortgages and rents come do, and they decided they need that income to put a roof over their heads and feed their family....

We are striking for ULP, so the strike would only last 2 days or so. Nobody will be hurting bad except AMR. A lot of us were recommending just a blue flue... Everyone call off sick, I bet that will get their attention as well.
 

RocketMedic

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Woah, you sound like us! I think I average getting off late at least 1-2 hours every single day on top of being mandated to work on my days off otherwise face discipline. Like I get that we are going to get late calls every once in awhile, that happened to me at other operations, and I'd get mad, but it wasn't every single day. I think I get off on time like once every month or two? It's ridiculous even if I am used to it. No respect to my personal time.
How often are you getting mandated? I’m getting mandated two days a month at my current gig. It sucks.
 

wtferick

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I don't think AMR will be affected from this what so ever. Not the first, nor the last strike against AMR.
 

DrParasite

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We are striking for ULP, so the strike would only last 2 days or so. Nobody will be hurting bad except AMR. A lot of us were recommending just a blue flue... Everyone call off sick, I bet that will get their attention as well.
So you would like to strike just for 2 days? I don't think AMR would even care. Maybe the local management would be uncomfortable, but I doubt it would be more than a blip on the radar back at corporate HQ. I doubt any changes will even occur.

If you think no one will be hurting what about all the people who are unable to get ambulances because they are short staffed? if someone dies because of not enough ambulances does that fall on the union for calling in sick?

Your vastly overestimating your place in the AMR corporate system. If you announce you're striking, AMR will transfer in personnel from other areas to staff the trucks. They won't hurt, but they might delay giving annual raises because they had to divert funds to cover the strike crews.

In my experience, healthcare and public safety strikes rarely help anyone, especially the strikers. The union's strength exists in signing a contract between labor and management, and if management is violating that contract, then they can file lawsuits against management to force them to follow their legally binding contract, as well as give labor a stronger voice when management is not being fair to employees, particularly in the disciplinary proceedings.

You want to strike for better wages? Go for it. you want to strike to get your steps back? Go for it. You want to strike for CISM to be included in your contract? Well, I hope you are including to have workman's comp cover PTSD from EMS calls, but go for it. You think this all qualifies as failing to negotiate in good faith, and ULP? ehhh, maybe. You think if a strike is authorized, in 2 days, AMR will do a 180 degree reversal, and give you everything you want? in 2 days? Whomever is telling you that is either overly lying to you, or naively optimistic about how effective that strike will be.
 
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BASICallyEMT

BASICallyEMT

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Well i'm glad you guys don't have say in what we do here. We are so far heading in the right direction towards a fair contract. AMR is coming back to the table...You guys will hear about our success soon enough.
 
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hometownmedic5

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My guess is you folks end up settling for a few more dollars a year and two bathroom breaks; and for that the company is going to make you bite the pillow n the long run, but I wish you the best of luck.

It’s been my experience that strikes don’t work in the long term. You might end up with a short term improvement, but the management is going to get their revenge.
 

Tigger

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Well i'm glad you guys don't have say in what we do here. We are so far heading in the right direction towards a fair contract. AMR is coming back to the table...You guys will hear about our success soon enough.
Well, at least you're confident.
 
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BASICallyEMT

BASICallyEMT

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My guess is you folks end up settling for a few more dollars a year and two bathroom breaks; and for that the company is going to make you bite the pillow n the long run, but I wish you the best of luck.


It’s been my experience that strikes don’t work in the long term. You might end up with a short term improvement, but the management is going to get their revenge.

We settled for that last contract. This time we have the majority of the workforce united, and thats almost 500 strong. Time for change 💪
 
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BASICallyEMT

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Your vastly overestimating your place in the AMR corporate system. If you announce you're striking, AMR will transfer in personnel from other areas to staff the trucks. They won't hurt, but they might delay giving annual raises because they had to divert funds to cover the strike crews.
You vastly underestimate the power of bad press on stock holders. You think corporate wants 400+ employees marching in downtown Riverside for ULP? Van Horn told us in person "you make me a lot of money" and we do. And you think the county will like this? Fire? Maybe this will inspire the rest of the big divisions to unite as well.
 

CCCSD

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400 hundred marchers...I doubt that. But if you’re going to strike, then man up and go out for weeks. Two days is nothing.
 
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BASICallyEMT

BASICallyEMT

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Man up? Learn the law. You just can't strike because you feel like it.
 
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BASICallyEMT

BASICallyEMT

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400 hundred marchers...I doubt that. But if you’re going to strike, then man up and go out for weeks. Two days is nothing.
Man up? Learn the law. You just can't strike because you feel like it. You doubt it? Well that's good to know, we that work here in Riverside must be wrong and you are all knowing.
 

CCCSD

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You are striking because you “feel like it”. There is no law preventing you, only LE cannot strike. Do you even understand this...never mind. Trying to communicate with you is like trying to teach a 2 year old the meaning of “No”, they just don’t have the mental capacity.
 
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BASICallyEMT

BASICallyEMT

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You are striking because you “feel like it”. There is no law preventing you, only LE cannot strike. Do you even understand this...never mind. Trying to communicate with you is like trying to teach a 2 year old the meaning of “No”, they just don’t have the mental capacity.



You just shown us that you have no idea what you are talking about. Good job.
 

CCCSD

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The bum down the street who’s been doing meth for 20 years has more veracity than the OP on this thread...
 
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