Re: FIGHTING AGAINST BIG BUSINESS

[Guest guest]

Rural/Metro has completed over 50 years of service.

Elaine Tyler

Rural/Metro Galveston County

[Guest guest]

Just a comment on the orientation of " really big corporations. " To be

successful in the long-term (over 50 years), most companies eventually adopt

a corporate model which goes like this. In a ranking of most important to

least important.

* #1 is the customer.

* #2 is the employee.

* #3 is the community

* #4 is the stock-holder.

Why? Because if the first 3 conditions are met, the stockholders are happy

because they are making money on their investment. So who are the

stockholders? They are the people who put their money into the company

because they believe it is a worthwhile way to make money. In large

corporations; this includes the employees who buy stock in themselves and

are betting on the fact that their best efforts is a worthwhile venture.

Obviously the key word here is long-term. and originated

this model and it has served the company very well for over 100 years. For

evidence of them putting the consumer first over profits, one only has to

take a detailed look at the Tylenol poisoning incident a few years back.

The problem in the EMS industry (one of about 50,000) is that the main

players never structured their companies for the long term. They were

designed and are currently maintained as short-term companies with a life

expectancy of about 15-20 years. Take a look at where the 2 giants are in

their life cycle and you will notice that they have been around for about 20

years.

So is federalization of the EMS service an appropriate measure? Show me

one, ok two, forgot about Head Start, governmentally (city, county, state,

or national level) managed programs that function efficiently at even a

break-even proposition.

Just some food for thought and gasoline for the inevitable flame war that is

about to ensue.

Stay safe and fire retardant

Easley

[texasems-L] FIGHTING AGAINST BIG BUSINESS

We in EMS must realize that we are fighting against BIG business to raise

the standards for our profession. The largest percentage of EMS personnel

in the U.S. are employed by private services and the largest of this

percentage are employed by AMR and Rural/Metro (both of which I have worked

for, one of which I still do part time, or at least till I wrote this).

These two giants play a large role in in setting the pay scale for EMS.

When I first started in EMS about ten years ago I was hired by a Mom and Pop

company in a costal county doing 911 and transfers making $6.88 hr. I

thought this was great cause working a 24 hr. shift plus extra over time I

was making " good money " . When AMR took over we all got raises, I went from

$7.50 to $9.00 (as an FTO). Then the bottom fell out of AMR and they

started down sizing. Next came Rural/Metro I took a dollar an hour pay cut

(on 24 hr shifts + OT that's a lot) to continue working in this county.

When AMR came in one of the first things they did was took all of are NEW

boxes away and put us in old vans, sending the boxes to areas that did

transfers only. Both with AMR and Rural/Metro we were never allotted the

" best " equipment that was always reserved for the " transfer only " side or

the bread and butter of the company. This is were the money is made or at

least was. I don't blame either of these companies for following the money

this is what company's and Corp's. are built to do and I understand the

concept of having to please the stock holders. My problem is that while both

AMR and Rural/Metro have complied with their contractual obligations at

least in this particular County they have done so at the expense of the

medics and Pt. care. Let me explain. First many of the medics in this

County are some of the best and hardest working medics I have ever worked

with and I in no way am impaling that the Pt. care is sub-par because of the

care that they give. However many of these medics are having to work 80 to

100 hours A WEEK just to make a living. I have been there and did the same

thing for almost 3 years and no one will ever convince me that this doesn't

effect Pt. care. But the management does nothing about it. Transfer medics

with these two companies make an average of 2-4 dollars an hour more and

basic certified dispatchers are making the equivalent of a paramedic field

supervisor and this is explained by telling these medics that they make less

because they " GET to run 911's and also GET to work more hours " . This County

has been a revolving door for medics for years most of which suffer burn out

and change professions leaving numerous open shifts to be filled by medics

already working an average of 56 hours a week, causing more burn out. Yet

nothing is done to either keep employee's or obtain quality medics to fill

the shifts. i.e. pay increases. In the Fort Worth area Rural/Metro is

offering $5000.00 sign on bonuses for paramedics and giving $1000.00 bonuses

on a quarterly basis to all employees if they keep within there response

time constraints. Why? Because they were losing MONEY to fines and stood

a good chance of losing more MONEY or even their contract. In Galveston

Co. this same company offers there employees nothing. (not even as much as a

Christmas bonus) Why? Because they, STAY within their contractual

agreement and supposedly are MAKING MONEY. As far as equipment Life pack

12's were finally put on the trucks in this county but only after

Rural/Metro closed it's transfer services in Houston (I am sure they used

the 12 leads often while doing transfers). Even then some of the local

management wanted to stick with the Ten's because they did not want to add

the price of the 12's to the this counties. cost center never mind a

standard of care. A ridicules concept seeing that when the Houston offices

closed they transferred an old DOG to this county, whose food and vet bills

have now become part of their cost center. Question most the employees down

there and they will tell you that you are more likely to get written up or

lose your job for not completely filling the billing section of your run

report out then for pushing the wrong drug or poor patient care. Somewhere

priorities have been skewed.

I say all this for this purpose as long as we as medics allow these big

business to take advantage of us then they will continue to do so at our

expense and the expense of our profession. I only talk of this Co. because

of first hand knowledge but am sure that this same scenario plays out

pretty much the same all across the state and nation. I in no way condemn

any of the medics that work for private services. Where you work does not

make the medic. I am of the opinion that until we organize as a profession

(not unionize) and come together our profession will always be under the

thumb of big business.

Frieze

[Guest guest]

But the corporate policy/structure has been in place for over 50 years.

Elaine Tyler

[Guest guest]

But they have been providing EMS only since 1969, (31 years) and didn't

expand until the early 70's which puts the EMS issue at around 20-25 years.

Stay safe

Jim

Re: [texasems-L] FIGHTING AGAINST BIG BUSINESS

Rural/Metro has completed over 50 years of service.

Elaine Tyler

Rural/Metro Galveston County

[Guest guest]

Uhm, Mr. Easley, hate to burst your bubble, but & DOESN'T

put the employee second anymore. Thanks to NAFTA (or as I call it, " Let big

business shaft everyone legally " ), & closed down its

multimillion dollar El Paso plant about 2 years after it opened (except for

some procedures that HAVE to be done in the US) and moved its operations to

Juarez, Mexico were they can pay their employees (legally) about $15 per day

as opposed to $7+ per hour.

Most of your ambulance (assuming you are using a Ford or Chevy chassis) is

manufactured in Juarez, Mexico. Your seat cushions are probably made in

Santa , NM at a plant called Foamex before they are shipped to Mexico

for final assembly. The electrical harnesses are made in Juarez. The door

panels, trim pieces, handles, knobs, etc, are made in Mexico. The engine and

transmission is probably made in either Canada or the US. They are, however,

all put together and the Ford or Chevy label placed on them in the US. For

those of you driving a VW, Honda, Toyota, or Dodge, don't laugh, your car is

made in Mexico too.

The Unions (of which I am a proud member of the American Federation of

Government Employees Local 908 [AFL-CIO]) have driven America to this point.

How? In St. Louis, MO I can get a job putting seats into Dodge Vans. The job

requires the operator to push a button, watch the seat drop into place on a

robot arm, then place 4 (or maybe 6) bolts in with a pneumatic gun. I will

be paid, to start, $14 per hour, plus full benefits, plus PTO, plus sick

leave, plus OT after 8 hours on a shift, plus federal (and other) holidays

off or a substantial bonus paid if I work. For this I need (drum roll

please) a high school diploma or GED.

Stop and think about what you are fighting. Now you know why I am trying to

become an RN and get out of EMS. I am seriously considering getting out of

the medical field all together. I hear welders make good money....

Webb, LP

FLW EMS, MO

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