Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) who nearly went on strike this week have reached a tentative deal with their employer, American Medical Response (AMR).
The two sides met until midnight Thursday and resumed talks again Friday at 11 a.m., according to Teamsters Local 763, which represents about 450 AMR employees. “When two parties come to the brink of a major strike, the issues go beyond the simple details of a labor contract,” Teamsters Local 763 business agent Liz Brown said in a statement Friday morning.
AMR announced that a tentative agreement had been reached at about 6 p.m. Friday. Union members will vote on the deal sometime after Christmas, Brown said. The union declined to release details of the agreement.
The EMTs, who currently earn a starting wage of $15.54 an hour, have been negotiating a new contract with AMR for nearly a year, arguing they need pay raises to keep up with the increasing costs of living in Seattle.
The company offered to bump starting pay to $17 an hour but said it couldn’t offer more because of low reimbursement rates for patients covered by Medicare or Medicaid. The company contracts with the city of Seattle to provide some ambulance service and does not receive city funding, instead making its money from patient fees. The union pointed out that $17 is just above Seattle’s minimum wage, which will be $16 for workers at large employers starting in January.
Last month, the EMTs rejected AMR’s final contract offer and authorized a strike. The company refused to bargain with the union after that vote, and the union set a strike deadline of Friday. Thursday afternoon, the two sides announced a truce: The union would call off the strike and the company would meet to negotiate again.
A strike threatened to disrupt the region’s complex emergency-response system. AMR EMTs provide basic life support and transportation for hospitals and medical facilities. More highly trained paramedics who work for the Seattle Fire Department and Medic One respond to more severe advanced-life-support calls. The union representing Seattle firefighters had pledged that if there was a strike, they would try to pick up calls AMR EMTs would usually take.
Meanwhile, AMR paid to bring about 200 of its employees from other cities and states to work in place of the striking EMTs. But for out-of-state employees to work in Washington, AMR needed a state waiver, which local officials refused to help the company secure.
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