Thirty unionized emergency medical technicians and paramedics who serve Fremont County say they will walk off the job Sept. 28 because county officials appear poised to allow a contract with their employer, Tennessee-based Priority Ambulance, to expire.
The first responders, organized under United Steel Workers Local 9012, had an understanding with the county, according to Local 9012 President Dominick Sapien. If voters approved a ¾-cent sales tax — a portion of which would be dedicated to funding ambulance and EMT services — the county would extend its contract with Priority Ambulance long enough to eventually take over responsibility for the service under the Fremont County Association of Governments. That would provide a more stable service, Sapien said, along with state-level salaries and benefits.
County voters approved the tax in the Aug. 18 primary election.
But the Fremont County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to instead negotiate with Cody Regional Health. The county’s contract with Priority Ambulance, which operates under the name Frontier Ambulance in Fremont County, is set to expire in October. Its tentative agreement with Cody Regional Health would begin Oct. 1 and last for about a year while the county considers a more permanent strategy.
If the county goes with Cody Regional, the EMTs would no longer be able to bargain as a union.
“We knocked on hundreds of doors to get this [tax] passed,” Sapien told WyoFile. “We find out that the county commissioners are now talking to Cody Regional Health to come in and take the ambulance service. They’re trying to bring in this third party that doesn’t recognize unions. It feels as though it’s a move to bust our union so, that way, we have no negotiating power.”
In response, 21 of the union’s members voted to strike, beginning Sept. 28.
Two commissioners reached by WyoFile on Thursday said their beef is with Priority Ambulance, and that they had made no such deal with the union.
“Let ’em,” commissioner Jennifer Wilson said.
“[Priority Ambulance] just didn’t want to play ball,” Wilson continued, adding that the company has continued for years to demand “exorbitant” fees. “We tried to negotiate, but they wanted to just sit there and put the gun back to our head again, and we’re sick and tired of it.”
Wilson, and Commission Chairman Larry Allen, told WyoFile there was never an agreement with the EMTs regarding the passage of the optional sales tax and eventually bringing them in as county employees, much less any other scenario to afford them the opportunity to remain unionized.
“My understanding,” Wilson said, “is Cody [Regional Health] is going to pay them even better. So what are they hollering about?”
Due to continual staffing issues, the EMTs frequently work 72 hours a week or more, Sapien said. Being able to organize for bargaining power is vital, no matter the employer, he added. Because EMTs are dedicated to saving lives, employers regard them as people who can be stretched to the breaking point, and they’ll still come to work.
“Our people are out here saving lives, helping others, and making less that I could going to work at McDonalds,” Sapien said.
The county isn’t giving up on the idea of eventually building a self-sustaining EMT service, Wilson said. But they don’t want to do it with Priority Ambulance. “They can go away, and I never want to hear about them again,” Wilson said. “We’re paying a company to use all of our stuff and [they keep asking for] more and more money.”
Meantime, the county needs Cody Regional Health’s help, she added.
“[Cody Regional Health has] got a really good reputation. We’ve got some bumpy roads coming ahead, you know, to get all this lined out and to get people to fill these ambulance spots.”
