A quarter-century after he oversaw the consolidation of the Emergency Medical Service into the Fire Department, Tom Von Essen remains stunned by two aspects of that move: that some firefighters and fire-union leaders still consider it a betrayal that explains why Mayor Rudy Giuliani elevated him from Uniformed Firefighters Association president to Fire Commissioner, and that Emergency Medical Technicians remain so poorly paid compared to Firefighters.
The extent of the bitterness toward him is embedded in the UFA constitution, which contains a "turncoat" clause barring members of the union's executive committee "from accepting any salaried non-competitive appointed position with the City of New York" for three years after leaving UFA office.
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