OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City Mayor and Council on Monday ratified a new contract deemed a “placeholder” representing the last, best and final offer for the resort’s Fire/EMS union, although there appears to be a thaw somewhat in the impasse over proposed shift changes.
On Feb. 29, the clock expired on negotiations between the town and the Career Firefighter Paramedics Association of Ocean City, or IAFF Local 4269, on a new three-year contract, resulting in the town’s “last, best and final offer” essentially becoming the new contract by default. The negotiations broke down in late February over the town’s unwavering position of eliminating the paramedics’ long-standing 24 hour shifts.
Currently, most paramedics work in 24-hour shifts, followed by 72 hours off. However, citing a variety of reasons, including potential missed calls or delayed responses, the town is adamant about the elimination of the 24-72 shift rotation in favor of an alternative 12-hour shift or some hybrid of the two.
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I believe the fire chief, city manager are taking away the 24 hour shifts in an attempt to run off the full time employees. Then they can save money by hiring part timers to work year round and not have to pay benefits. If 24 hour shifts were horrible they would put a halt to them immediately and not 6 months from now.
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ReplyDeleteThey can't go against the union and their contract. They would happily sue the Town of Ocean City. They have had problems with the 24-72 and calls not being covered. That is why they want to get rid of it.
the talking baldy from Stockton really helped the town when he said at the last meeting that this was a stressful profession and the three days off was really needed to rest and recharge. That is very easy to dispute as all you need to do is watch Facebook and see how many work other jobs on those three days off--many but not all are at another fire/ambulance job.
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