Falck shuts Lifestar NJ bases in Totowa and Edison

[SigOne]

Well, it finally made one newspaper in NJ. Falck USA subsidiary Lifestar USA pulled a short-notice shutdown of Lifestar Response of NJ's on Jan 15th, 2014. Workers said they had nine days notice. Herald News of North Jersey paper carried a drive-by phone interview of Lifestar USA spokesman, who spun the living crap out of the reporter. To read the article, you would think only 30 people would lose their jobs. But if you apply the skeptics 180-degree, back azimuth correction, you would get a lot closer to the truth---meaning ALL BUT 30 were laid off. The best number I come up with is 154 EMS workers laid off---EMTs, coach drivers, and thankfully, IMO, all of the dispatchers, although two actually did a respectable job.
The article ran in the herald news Jan 16 or 17, but the best part is that they have a website for the paper too, northjersey.com, and people posted very revealing comments in the comments section under the digital form of the article.
Dispatch reportedly turned off the electricity around 3 pm on Jan 15, and crews made their way back. Lifestar NJ left the place trashed. There was a period of lockout.
let's back up. Workers found out about the change of ownership by coming off shift, to find people from GEM Ambulance (Newark, Del.) handing out job applications for GEM. They were told that 80 people would be kept, so imagine workers surprise when GEM actually hired only 30--and not all of them the best EMTs available.
An educated guess is that the Danish experience in investing in New Jersey probably cost them, conservatively, $18.4 million. There was a management contract to maintain Lifestar managers for a period of time they did not disclose, but turned out to be three years. Lifestar NJ packed up its records, and took them who knows where. At least one ex-worker, who was there many years, has already filed a claim with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The last two years have been particullarly contentious between management--all the way to Denmark--the their labor force in NJ--because management was not only tone-deaf to legit grievances, but deliberately oppressed workers, with shift changes, mandatory overtime, screwing up paychecks, withholding overtime pay in some cases until the workers brought in the NJ state Wage and Hour division. Management also reportedly failed to live up to the letter of their contracts with hospitals. The official company line that Lifestar NJ managment fed workers was that Lifestar NJ lost all its nursing home contracts except one---and obviously all around the same time. It may have been pushback by the nursing home industry to punish bad management-- some of the regular patients were being picked up 4 hours late! In one case, dispatch was informed that one facility had just been victimized by an armed gunman, and dispatch continued to send unsuspecting crews to the facility!
Hopefully, the full story will come out.
Falck had been pushing hard to bring in inexperienced EMTs for $11/hour, and hired several that couldn't lift more than 100 lbs, resulting in multiple injuries to their partners, until the complaints became too loud for management to ignore. People flat out refused to ride with the offenders. Thus, they were rapidly bringing down the quality in the once-proud Lifestar NJ crews. It used to be a place people wanted to go to. Now 154 mostly really good EMS workers are out in the street. And BTW, Falck will fight tooth and nail over every dollar of unemployment. Consider this a warning to all the other 4,000 or so workers for Falck USA. They want to cut labor costs, at your expense.

 

[DrParasite]

I'm guessing you are a former Lifestar employee?

I happen to know people from Lifestar (East Orange), and GEM, and they tell me a different story.

Falck wanted out of the non-emergency transport bussiness. apparently it wasn't making enough money to be worthwhile, so they made some backdoor deal with GEM to give them their transport division (they kept it super hush hush, not even the GEM rank and file knew about it). They are keeping their 911 services, and actually expandning it (they just picked up Irvington EMS), GEMS gets the contracts for North Jersey, and Lifestar gets to unload their NETS to a company that wants to do that.

GEM has their own dispatch center in South Jersey, which handles Delaware, South Jersey, and PA; it makes poor bussiness sense for them to maintain multiple centers, so those jobs were eliminated. Ditto the supervision and administrative division. I hear they are keeping the mechanics and the northern based to be the GEM northern division.

You say that GEM only hired 30 people from Lifestar? well, considering "Lifestar NJ left the place trashed" I don't blame them. You mean people needed to apply to get jobs? Do you remember what happened when Rural/Metro closed their doors in 2006? Some were "recommended" to another agency, and the rest needed to apply. and many did apply, and got jobs elsewhere. Why does this shock you at all??

[Lifestar] deliberately oppressed workers, with shift changes, mandatory overtime, screwing up paychecks, withholding overtime pay in some cases until the workers brought in the NJ state Wage and Hour division.

Not for nothing, but that sounds like a really horible place to work. And if people were really as good as you say they were, they should have quit and went elsewhere. Oh, and lets not forget, Lifestar used to run 911s during the daytime in Totowa (where Lifestar's NJ HQ was located), until the town kicked them out for failing to do the job that they were contracted to provide.

Lifestar/Falck is a for profit ambulance compay. In New Jersey, allmost all of them suck. they are in it for the money, often at the expense of the employees. They close down all the time, new ones pop up all the time and pay their people crap, because they know they can find someone who will work for $11 an hour. Most decent EMTs don't work for private transport companies for their entire careers, for good reasons.

I'm sorry that you lost your job, and sorry that all the lifestar employees lost their jobs, but if you are as good as you say, and have good employment histories, you should have no problems at all finding a new job.

 

[DrParasite]

So, here is what you posted two months ago:

The complaint filed with the US Dept of Labor OFCCP (#100180804) against Falck and its subsidiaries, Falck USA (Washington state) and Lifestar USA (Washington, D.C) alleged several claims of discrimination against veterans:
* That one dispatcher conducted a 4 1/2 year campaign of harassment against a veteran, because he was a veteran, including: bullying, dangerous assignments, assignment to rigs with a histroy of mechanical breakdowns, harassment, illegal mandatory overtime, excessive deprivation of meal and bathroom breaks, sleep deprivation through scheduling assignments, failure to supply lift assists for two man crews on bariatric assignment, failure to send tow trucks while stranded in a snow storm, and attempts to impose illegal orders that would jeopardize patients and fellow crew members.The complaint specifies names and dates of these incidents in great detail.
* That one of the subsidiary company's managing accountants attempted to discriminate against veterans as a class in the following way: the plan was to fire all veterans, in order to take advantage of federal tax breaks twice over. Since there is a tax benefit for hiring certain veterans, the plan was to take the tax benefit in that tax year, which is legal, but then to lower costs, and cow other workers into following, to fire all the veterans, then offer them jobs back, only at pay of $2/hour less. If they accepted, the company would than take advantage of the tax credit again, in the same tax year, in effect double-dipping on the tax benefit. The net effect would be that there would be no new veterans hired, the company would take two times the tax benefit they would be entitled to. A major part of the plan was to strike fear into the hearts of non-veteran workers--since once they saw that the veterans were being treated so badly, that fear would take over and the rest would fall into line as the company would then cut everybody's pay by $2/hour. In c company wher many people are at or close to the poverty level already.
* Falck USA's human resources department displayed a pre-conceived prejudice that all veterans were subject to post traumatic stress disorder. It attempted to offer crisis counseling to the veteran lodging the complaint simply for lodging the complaint. The clinical counseling center, to its credit, declined to accept any such case. Nevertheless, the parent company Falck continues an international effort to promote similar crisis counseling efforts, constituting and institutionalizing an obvious hostile workeplace for veterans.
The complaint was withdrawn, reluctantly, as the fear factor was so great that there was considerable risk that witnesses with actual proof would, under fear of losing their job, recant ample testimony supporting the claims.

During the week following the filing of the complaint, the person filing it was extensively spied on, and harassed indirectly in numerous ways, some described above. Some time later, the dispatcher in question was no longer reporting for work, and hasn't been seen at work for months, but it is not widely known whether he was fired, or suspended, or placed on medical leave. The withdrawal of the complaint, in part, only means that the company agrees to adhere to its own code of conduct, which pledges non-discrimination agains any protected class. Yet blatant discrimination continues, as it now seems likely that a corporate spy was sent to badmouth the veteran, and any partners associated with him; efforts to get veterans into the company are proceeding very slowly, and existing veterans are complaining that the company does not back up their EMTs in the inevitable misunderstandings that families and facilities have in dealing with medical transport. In the first week of the government shutdown, the dispatch operation began stepping up more hazardous assignments to the veteran, his car was hit probably by a company vehicle in the company parking lot while he was at work, and some dispatchers became noticeably more quarrelsome, as if trying to provoke an incident, which, unfortunately it did, but probably will not come out in their favor--since it's almost an instant replay of the initial incident.
This much is certain: most of the executives making decisions that create a climate of fear are still in place, and bad decisions are still being made, in the opinion of the rank and file. The company so far has not made a move to publicize to its workers worldwide that there even was a complaint, much less a decision that was at least favorable to the whistle-blower, in that the company pledged to stick to its code of conduct, and recognized in writing that it should stick to its code of conduct.

sounds like a really horrible place to work. maybe those involved should have kept up with the complaint instead of withdrawing it? and if they were terminted, they should have sued for wrongful termination? or even better, left the crappy compay and gotten a job where you had a union, or at least a better HR department and management structure?

Lifestar continues its practice of firing people at the 5 year mark. Company fires some, reportedly to cut down on insurance rates, then hires more people later on, reportedly at a lower hourly rate. Business level stays about the same, if they are lucky. This, despite trimming two high paid execs, now at the rate of one bigwig a year. New year is coming!

maybe it's just me, but If they had a habit of firing people at the 5 year mark, why didn't your decent employees see the writing on the wall and move onto bigger and better employment locations?

I stand by my original statement: those who didn't look for other jobs, or who expected any private ambulance company to treat them well were either incredibly naive, or incredibly stupid when they considered their future with the company.

 

[Anonymous]

Lol does someone here have an agenda?

 

[SigOne]

Reply to Dr know it all

For someone so smug, and professing to be skeptical, you seem quite eager to believe the cover story most favorable to management. So you know more than people who were actually there? And so you choose to believe GEM people who have been there less than a week now, and weren't informed of the move either? Not exactly the scientific method, there. Hope you're not a surgeon
As if none of the alternatives had occurred to anyone? Since you are so full of solutions, why don't you step forward and form an EMS union in New Jersey? I'm sure no one else could do a better job than you, even though major national unions have been trying for years. There surely is a need for a strong union.

 

[PotatoMedic]

Strong union... In EMS?

 

[NomadicMedic]

Keep it polite, civil and on topic.

 

[ffemt8978]

For someone so smug, and professing to be skeptical, you seem quite eager to believe the cover story most favorable to management. So you know more than people who were actually there? And so you choose to believe GEM people who have been there less than a week now, and weren't informed of the move either? Not exactly the scientific method, there. Hope you're not a surgeon
As if none of the alternatives had occurred to anyone? Since you are so full of solutions, why don't you step forward and form an EMS union in New Jersey? I'm sure no one else could do a better job than you, even though major national unions have been trying for years. There surely is a need for a strong union.

Not necessarily...maybe people aren't willing to blindly accept the word of one member with 8 posts all about the same topic.

Same goes for the union comment. What would a union have done to stop a company from closing it's doors? Force it to remain in business? Not likely.

 

[SigOne]

Answer to your first point?

1) If someone knows about a topic, they should be able to post about it with some authority--whether it's one post or a quadrillion. The content either persuades or it doesn't. Some skepticism is always appropriate, it's part of the scientific method. Would people not believe, say, Stephen Hawking, just based on the sheer number of posts in a blog? doubtful. I don't think that that should be the sole criterion ---it's the old quality vs. quantity debate. Does EMT life really cut off people at 8 posts on one topic? is there really a quota? And is there no difference between the start of a thread and the normal follow up with replies? Also hard to believe. Is that what your're really saying?

 

[NomadicMedic]

No, he's saying you sound like you have an axe to grind and you're fixated on Falck.

 

[SigOne]

But of course

If you have a grievance, then you have an axe to grind. I stated my experience, so that others may be warned. It's up to the reader to heed it or not.
I write about Falck because I have direct experience, that there has been a very long thread on EMT Life about Falck being the 900 lbs gorilla that people don't know much about. I'm giving my experience. Which, by the way, involves some serious sticking up for patients, and putting patients first. A stance which has cost me money, a job, seeing 154 colleagues get cashiered like Kleenex, and could put me on the path to being a homeless veteran.So the axe I'm grinding is that putting patients first ain't the easiest road in the world. (And, BTW, i'd do it again).
And what I'm getting back is that administrators are annoyed that there are less than 10 posts by me about a company where the questions and comments with little information go on for several pages. Are you trying to discourage people with experience from posting? Really?
i've got some serious skin in this game, and it seems that I'm getting non-serious responses. What one would hope is that the EMT community would do more to see that the business side not overrun the patient care side. I'm not hearing much about that in the posts I'm reading.
Falck has about 4,000 employees and 900 ambulances in the uS. Let some of them post, and hear their experiences. Good and bad.

 

[ffemt8978]

1) If someone knows about a topic, they should be able to post about it with some authority--whether it's one post or a quadrillion. The content either persuades or it doesn't. Some skepticism is always appropriate, it's part of the scientific method. Would people not believe, say, Stephen Hawking, just based on the sheer number of posts in a blog? doubtful. I don't think that that should be the sole criterion ---it's the old quality vs. quantity debate. Does EMT life really cut off people at 8 posts on one topic? is there really a quota? And is there no difference between the start of a thread and the normal follow up with replies? Also hard to believe. Is that what your're really saying?

You are able to post about it, but that doesn't mean we're going to accept you at your word just because you claim to know about it.

On an anonymous internet forum like this, there is no way for us to verify the authenticity of your information, nor is there any way for us to verify your knowledge on the subject.

Since we can only go by what you posted here, especially since you are not providing links back to the source of the information, people have to go on the totality of your posts. And the totality of the posts indicates a strong bias against Falck...justified or not is immaterial at this point. This is where a member's previous posting history comes into play. A member with over a couple of hundred posts on various topics has established a reputation, so to speak, here that other forum members use to aid in judging the quality and veracity of a post on a subject. The opposite side of the coin is a newer member, with very few total posts, showing up, posting on a topic, and expecting everyone to take them at their word simply because they say so.

You may very well be an authority on this subject, but to this point, you haven't provided the members enough information to determine that on their own.

 

[SigOne]

Maybe you missed the citation?

In one of the earliest posts, I included the following reference number to the Dept of Labor's OFCCP (complaint # I00180804). Which was posted in response to a question, I believe by FAA1, asking for more details. Also, if you need more verification, there was a short article in the North Jersey Herald News newspaper about the base closings. Which shows only that the bases were closed. More verification of what I am posting can be found in the comments posted on the newspapers website, northjersey.com, by people who were actually laid off by Lifestar/Falck, or were ex-employees. The article ran I believe on Jan 17th, but all you have to do is go to the northjersey.com website to check it out. I invite you to do so.

 

[ffemt8978]

First off, a complaint to a oversight board is not an unbiased source of facts...it is a list of allegations.

Secondly, I'm not going to go searching around a website because you failed to provide the link to the specific article you referenced. You referenced it, you provide the link to it. Essentially saying "google it" doesn't cut it.

Thirdly, I don't care enough about Falck to even bother. I'm just trying to help you become a more productive member here.

 

[SigOne]

OK, if you want a link

it's a simple fix, but it just won't be tonight. That requires a little bit of time to pull off for me.

 

[Jon]

SigOne,

So I'm the one that started the thread, over a year and a half ago, that accused Falck of being the "900lb gorrilla no one knows about."

Sounds like you've got an axe to grind against Falck.


So I take it that LifeStar's Northern NJ bases were union. How about the 911 operations? Any NJ bases still open?

Are the PA/MD operations union shops?

 

[DrParasite]

For someone so smug, and professing to be skeptical, you seem quite eager to believe the cover story most favorable to management. So you know more than people who were actually there? And so you choose to believe GEM people who have been there less than a week now, and weren't informed of the move either? Not exactly the scientific method, there. Hope you're not a surgeon.

I don't blindly believe management; but some of what I have been told makes sense. I also don't have an ax to grind, like some other people who I won't mention...

Since you are so full of solutions, why don't you step forward and form an EMS union in New Jersey? I'm sure no one else could do a better job than you, even though major national unions have been trying for years. There surely is a need for a strong union.

Form a union? why on earth would I do that, especially for a company that I don't work for? and for the record, I'm a member of Local 97 (go teamsters!!). They represent me at my EMS place of employment. There is also the International Association of EMTs and Paramedics, which also has locals in NJ.

If you have a grievance, then you have an axe to grind. I stated my experience, so that others may be warned. It's up to the reader to heed it or not.

and I happen to think you're trying to tarnish their good name. I mean c'mon, a private company that treats their employees as expendable, and will dump them to make a profit? say it ain't so

I write about Falck because I have direct experience, that there has been a very long thread on EMT Life about Falck being the 900 lbs gorilla that people don't know much about. I'm giving my experience. Which, by the way, involves some serious sticking up for patients, and putting patients first. A stance which has cost me money, a job, seeing 154 colleagues get cashiered like Kleenex, and could put me on the path to being a homeless veteran.So the axe I'm grinding is that putting patients first ain't the easiest road in the world. (And, BTW, i'd do it again).
And what I'm getting back is that administrators are annoyed that there are less than 10 posts by me about a company where the questions and comments with little information go on for several pages. Are you trying to discourage people with experience from posting? Really?
i've got some serious skin in this game, and it seems that I'm getting non-serious responses. What one would hope is that the EMT community would do more to see that the business side not overrun the patient care side. I'm not hearing much about that in the posts I'm reading.
Falck has about 4,000 employees and 900 ambulances in the uS. Let some of them post, and hear their experiences. Good and bad.

blah blah blah. any proof? your opinion is valid, but it's just that: your opinion. I am NOT saying your wrong; in fact, you seem like a very angry person who was terminated from Falck, and now your looking to smear their name with half truths and other things that you think will damage their reputation. and BTW, comments from random screennames on the north jersey herald are as valuable as your statements. they can all be one person writing different stories. If you want to give credibility, either have a reputation of consistency over a large period of time, or feel free to post your name, certification level, and agency you work for. That will take away the behind the keyboard only muscles.

They might be a :censored::censored::censored::censored:ty company, but as you said, they have over 4,000 employees, and 900 ambulances. You would think that there would be more people openly criticizing and complaining, and people leaving in droves for better agencies. But I haven't heard anything about them. Wonder why?

So I take it that LifeStar's Northern NJ bases were union. How about the 911 operations? Any NJ bases still open?

I am pretty sure they weren't union. Their 911 operations are still active (and have no sign they are doing anything other than expanding), and running out of East Orange.

 

[TigerManMcCool9974]

As a Mississipian, I'm more than disturbed by the day-to-day politics re: the EMS operations of New York and New Jersey.

 

[newescobar2000]

i worked for them as well

Hey I used to work in the Edison office of life star. I mainly took the job cuz I was desperate and needed a extra gig bcuz I had loans to pay off. My time there was was okay. I was ticked off on how they went about with there company. They did make all there employees 're apply to gem. What was going in my head was why the he'll do I have to 're apply for a company I already work for????? I mean all there doing is changing the name and management. So I did apply to gem which was gonna be my third time applying to them. Needless to say I wasn't hired by them again bcuz of there strict policy of license issues. So just like that no job.

Thank god this was only a side job for me and I still had a fulltime job someplace else cuz I would of reeked havoc if this was my only job but I guess you can say I'm not as mad as everyone else cuz I paid off my loans which why that job was intended for and I was gonna limit to working there one a week or once a month.

My thing is now that while I was working there I grew the feelings of why I loved ems in the first place and decided to go work on pursuing my paramedic degree. This was the only emt job I had since I first got my license back in 2010. So it sucks cuz I was relying on gaining experience from them even though it's a transport company since I never joined a squad or had time for one cuz I'm always working or school but now being new to this forum hopefully I can find people who are willing to help me out cuz the other big companies that have ems like atlantic robert wood jfk somerset medical center etc... all take long to get hired by.

But. Anyway if anybody knows a decent place that hiring and I can gain a lot of experience especially in 911 emergency calls ill greatly appreciate if you inbox with info bcuz I consider my self a lost emt who is trying to find their way back up and eventually become a paramedic-Rn take care guys.

 

[DrParasite]

Hey I used to work in the Edison office of life star. I mainly took the job cuz I was desperate and needed a extra gig bcuz I had loans to pay off. My time there was was okay. I was ticked off on how they went about with there company. They did make all there employees 're apply to gem. What was going in my head was why the he'll do I have to 're apply for a company I already work for????? I mean all there doing is changing the name and management. So I did apply to gem which was gonna be my third time applying to them.

umm, because you didn't work for GEM? Lifestar and GEM are two different companies. You work for Lifestar... you don't work for GEM..... that is why you need to apply, because you aren't aleady an employee of GEM.

Needless to say I wasn't hired by them again bcuz of there strict policy of license issues. So just like that no job.

which is probably why they wanted everyone to apply, to ensure all new hires meet their standards (I know, what an absurd concept!!!)

I was gonna limit to working there one a week or once a month.

plenty of transport companies out there. for every one that shuts down 4 others open up. if you want a job, apply to them.

So it sucks cuz I was relying on gaining experience from them even though it's a transport company since I never joined a squad or had time for one cuz I'm always working or school but now being new to this forum hopefully I can find people who are willing to help me out

.you said it yourself, you don't need the money right now, so why not volunteer once a week or once a month, like you said you would be working?

cuz the other big companies that have ems like atlantic robert wood jfk somerset medical center etc... all take long to get hired by
But. Anyway if anybody knows a decent place that hiring and I can gain a lot of experience especially in 911 emergency calls ill greatly appreciate if you inbox with info bcuz I consider my self a lost emt who is trying to find their way back up and eventually become a paramedic-Rn take care guys.

yes, I know tons of them. UMD, McCabe, Falck/lifestar east orange, woodbridge, RBMC, elizabeth, union county, trinitas, I could go on for hours. however, they have stringent requirements, probably more stringent than GEM. Unless you have a hook inside (say, you work or volunteer with someone who already works there and can vouch for you with management to overlook your license issue), it's going to be hard to get in.

As a newbie EMT, I would volunteer with a busy squad to gain experience, until you get a good paying busy job.

good luck