A Rescue Requires Leadership — Not Rewriting History

On his way out, Robert Tucker published a recent opinion claiming to defend New York City’s EMTs and paramedics while blaming their unions for a system in crisis. It is a convenient narrative — and one that collapses under the weight of the facts.

During his tenure as FDNY Commissioner, Tucker never attended a single EMS contract negotiation. He did not convene union leadership. He did not request briefings on stalled talks. He did not ask how he could help move negotiations forward. These are not matters of interpretation — they are matters of record.

Advocacy does not begin after leaving office.

Tucker also arrived without experience working in a city agency, without a labor-relations background and without ever having operated inside an emergency medical service — deficiencies that should have disqualified him from the role. EMS is not a corporate abstraction. It is a 24-hour public safety system strained by relentless call volume, chronic staffing shortages, and forced overtime.

Mayor Adams’ decision to appoint him was a political choice, not an operational one — and EMTs and paramedics are the ones who paid the price.

Effective leadership in this environment requires engagement and presence. EMS personnel experienced little of either.

What they did experience was attrition on a historic scale.

According to FDNY figures, EMS is losing 10 to 15 EMTs and paramedics every single week. Call volume routinely exceeds 6,000 jobs a day. Ambulances are regularly placed out of service — not because of weather, but because of faulty equipment and, most critically, because there are no crews available to staff them.

This is not theoretical. It is the daily operation in the largest city in the country.

It is also worth stating plainly who EMS is.

New York City’s EMS workforce is among the most diverse in municipal government — disproportionately composed of people of color, immigrants, first-generation Americans and working class New Yorkers. Many speak multiple languages. Many live in the same neighborhoods they serve. They are not an abstract labor unit; they are a reflection of the city itself.

Systems do not fail in a vacuum. When a workforce is undervalued for decades, when its warnings are consistently minimized, and when leadership avoids confrontation with City Hall on its behalf, it raises a hard question: whose voices are easiest to ignore — and why.

These conditions did not improve under Tucker’s watch — they worsened. Staffing declined. Mandatory overtime increased. Equipment failures persisted. Morale eroded further. EMS did not leave his tenure stronger, better resourced, or closer to a contract than when he arrived.

Yet his article places responsibility squarely on union leadership for insisting on parity and refusing arbitration. That framing ignores reality.

EMS unions have raised the same core issues for years: chronic underpayment, unsafe staffing levels, unsustainable attrition and institutional disregard. These are not symbolic demands. They are operational necessities.

Parity is not a slogan. It is a retention strategy in a city hemorrhaging experienced EMTs and paramedics.

He talks about compromise, and we agree, we have tried to negotiate and compromise with a city that handed one offer over a year ago and said take it or leave. We have offered new programs, adjusted our demands and tried constantly to find a framework that brings relief to our members. The city has refused to engage in actual negotiations.

If compromise was truly the solution, Tucker had every opportunity to pursue it while in office. He did not broker discussions. He did not force the issue with City Hall. He did not publicly confront the budgetary decisions driving the collapse.

We have never had a conversation with this commissioner where he hasn’t expressed how he is a millionaire and doesn’t need this job. He is completely out of touch with how civil servants live and work in NYC.

Silence in office followed by commentary afterward is not leadership — it is distance.

He states we need to abandon our parity push. That sentence alone shows how ill-informed he is about the workforce he supposedly led. We won an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EOCC) decision, we won class action status. Our contract negotiation is about bringing much needed relief to an underpaid workforce. It’s not about parity. Our demands to OLR are about fair wages for the work we do. If he spent the time to actually listen to our proposals over this stretch of bargaining, he would know that.

So here is the question Tucker never answers:

If EMS was facing a “looming public safety crisis,” why did he never treat it like one while he had the authority to act?

If unions were the obstacle, why did he never sit down with them?

If parity was unrealistic, why did he never offer a credible alternative to stop the bleeding?

Leadership means showing up when decisions are hard — not explaining failure away later.

New York City’s EMS crisis will not be solved by blaming workers or their representatives. It will be solved when leaders are willing to show up, speak truth to power, and fight publicly for the people who keep the system alive every day.

EMS does not need revisionist commentary.

It needs leadership that actually stood with it when it mattered.

FDNY EMS Local 2507 represents New York’s EMTs, paramedics and fire inspectors. FDNY EMS Local 3621 represents New York’s EMS Lieutenants and Captains within the FDNY.