The union representing 30 emergency medical technicians and paramedics serving Fremont County cancelled plans to strike later this week after the county extended its contract with their employer as a stop-gap measure.
Organized under United Steel Workers Local 9012, the first-responders originally planned to walk out Monday and then postponed the strike to Thursday. The union officially stood down Wednesday, however, a day after Fremont County commissioners inked a new two-year contract with the bargaining group’s employer, Tennessee-based Priority Ambulance, which operates as Frontier Ambulance in the county.
Although the new contract includes a series of raises for the workers and an increase to their health savings account, “It was never about money,” United Steel Workers Staff Representative William Wilkinson told WyoFile. “It was about the safety of this community.”
Fremont County was paying Priority $1.9 million annually. Under the new contract, the county will pay about $2.3 million the first year and $2.4 million the second year, according to Fremont County Commissioner Mike Jones, who helped negotiate the contract. Those totals include a 5% salary increase for EMTs the first year and 4% the second year.
Nobody is 100% satisfied with the deal, Jones told WyoFile, “But at the end of the day, I think you hold to the faith that everybody wants ambulance service to continue on Oct. 1.”
Messy negotiations
Normally, the union negotiates directly with the employer, Priority, and the county negotiates separately with Priority on its contract. But those independent negotiations became complicated because the county and the first responders share a common goal to eventually end their relationships with Priority and move the service under local government control.
The commission earlier this year signed a memorandum of understanding with towns in the county to shift EMT services under the Fremont County Association of Governments — a move that would better serve everyone, including tribal governments and the first responders, according to both county and union representatives who spoke with WyoFile. To help pay for it, Fremont County voters passed a ¾-cent sales tax in August.
Revenue from the new tax won’t begin arriving until the spring, however, and the county’s contract with Priority was set to expire Oct. 1. The separate negotiations both went sideways. The county wanted a short-term contract with Priority to fill the gap until the association can take over, and the union workers, Wilkinson said, found it difficult to gain traction on their interests.
In the maw of fraught bargaining and positioning, commissioners flirted with an offer from Cody Regional Health to fill the gap. That angered first responders because, among other things, the proposed arrangement would not allow them to continue with union representation. Local 9012 promised to strike.
But with the contract set to expire and the threat of a strike looming, all three parties found themselves at the negotiating table.
“Since it was down to the wire, it was really a three-party deal,” Wilkinson said.
The union is generally pleased with the outcome, he added, because it’s a nod from the county that the EMTs can maintain union bargaining power — a necessity given that first responders in Fremont County have continuously had to work long hours due to insufficient staffing. Plus, both Wilkinson and Jones agreed, the new two-year contract buys time for the Fremont County Association of Governments to prepare to take on the service. Doing so requires obtaining multiple certifications, as well as training and infrastructure for the nuts-and-bolts of managing the business side of EMT services — from scheduling shifts to bidding for equipment and supplies.
“You need administration — you need all kinds of stuff that you just can’t do overnight,” Wilkinson said.
The higher dollar figures under the new Priority contract have already raised some eyebrows, Jones said. Some of it can be chalked up to folding in some costs that were already coming back to the county and other entities under the old contract, he said. Other factors are simply the rising cost of providing the service.
“Yes, it’s an increase,” Jones said. “But, you know, fuel costs have gone up. Everything’s gone up. It’s inflationary.”
Fremont County Commissioners sure made a bigger mess out of this than it needed it to be. I would say they were down right shady. Glad a deal got done.