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Yahoo!Ambulance drivers and emergency response workers contracted with American Medical Response (AMR) announced they intend to go out on strike on Tuesday, September 23, after rejecting management’s latest offer for a pay increase. AMR management is seeking to assure local government officials — with whom they contract — that services will not be affected. AMR spokesperson Jason Sorrick said AMR will transfer some of the 6,000 AMR employees located throughout California to Santa Barbara, adding that hotels, motels, and other temporary lodgings have already been secured for the replacement workers. Currently, AMR has 94 employees providing emergency response services throughout all of Santa Barbara County, except for UCSB, Vandenberg Village, and New Cuyama. Sorrick said AMR has offered its workers a 13 percent raise. Officials with the International Association of EMTs and Paramedics were not available for comment. Despite company assurances, some county officials believe that AMR's temporary employees will be unfamiliar with Santa Barbara geography, and because of that, response time could suffer.
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"Ambulance Drivers"? If we are ambulance drivers than you Nick are not a journalist. A journalist, if s/he don't already know what they are talking about, does research and had you taken the an extra 15 seconds to do research you would know that "Ambulance Driver" is not a level of certification in California, we are EMTs and paramedics. We are medical professionals, driving just happens to be one of our responsibilities. Damn I liked Indy and I thought that they employed actual journalists.
MedicJ (anonymous profile)
September 22, 2008 at 6:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
AMR has many unhappy employees. Just ask some of your local Firefighters who probably worked there at one time. I worked in the Riverside area and most employees agree that they are treated poorly and underpaid. It is a shame that not only do they pay so lousy but they treat their employees like scum, even a pay raise doesn't help their horrible reputation. Better to use a different ambulance company if you can.
SickofAMR (anonymous profile)
November 18, 2008 at 11:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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