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To the editor:
It now takes over 18 minutes to get an ambulance and 23 minutes for firefighters to get on a medical call. EMS is just 16 percent of a $2.6 billion FDNY budget.
Politicians know the deal: firefighters first, EMS second or third. The City has a plan to further privatize a large portion of the 911 system lower priority calls.
Can we all win the fight for FDNY EMS parity with fire suppression? Yes, it’s very possible, but not without applying way more pressure.
Here’s the real talk.
The city is going to keep claiming "it doesn't have money," and the Taylor Law tactically isolates Local 2507. The City simply will always value the clout of the United Firefighters Association more than it takes seriously 4,000 Local 2507 members that "cant strike," and give most of their dues to DC 37, that doesn't lobby for them, at all.
What makes parity possible?
EMS now handles the majority of FDNY’s workload (medical calls dominate). Chronic staffing shortages + burnout are finally hurting response times (Above 18 minutes).
Courts, arbitrators and city hall can no longer pretend EMS is “second class” work.
The public narrative is slowly shifting: people get that EMS saves lives every day.
What keeps it from happening?
Firefighters’ unions are powerful and will defend their edge hard.
The city fears parity sets a precedent for other titles.
EMS still doesn’t have unified, sustained political leverage.
Only a tangible alliance with 1199SEIU, the Teamsters, CSEA, NYSNA, IAEP can bring that, but there is no talk of that at all under the Oren Barzilay-Michael Greco Administration.
Parity isn’t just raises it’s pension year reduction, OT availability, the retirement age.
The most likely path is a sudden “same pay tomorrow,” but step raises that close the gap. But how many decades?
That means the next offer of 20-25 percent is more likely pity, than than the 47 percent raise parity entails.
Title reclassification (or functional parity) - being told you're "uniformed" doesn't make you able to bargain that way. 2507 is offered civilian pattern bargaining.
Pension and retirement reform just happened, for firefighters. Court or arbitration wins tied to recruitment/retention crises take a long time.
The bottom line is that parity won’t be granted. It will only be forced by organizing, public pressure, legal strategy and political cost. By new allies.
4,500 people acting and talking alone has gotten nowhere.
The question isn’t if EMS deserves parity. It’s whether the city can keep functioning without giving it.
Walter Sebastian Adler
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JTKerr
By some estimates, achieving pay parity for FDNY EMS EMTs and paramedics and bringing the service to full operational staffing would require an estimated $340 million annually—about 3/10ths of 1 percent of New York City’s $110 billion budget. It’s been projected this investment could reduce average response times to life-threatening emergencies by significantly more than 3 minutes, potentially saving hundreds of additional lives each year. Reinvesting a portion of EMS transport revenue—which already exceeds EMS staffing expenditures—could offset much of the cost while delivering faster emergency response, improved patient outcomes, and a more stable EMS workforce for New York City.
Strengthening FDNY EMS through full staffing and fair compensation is not simply a labor issue, it is a targeted public-safety investment.
The question is not whether New York City can afford to strengthen its EMS system—it clearly can. The real question is whether the City is willing to make that investment.
James T. Kerr
Tuesday, April 7 Report this