New Jersey EMS workers unionize

MONOC employees join IAFF to become first union of EMS workers in state

WASHINGTON, D.C. – More than 500 emergency services workers throughout New Jersey have joined the International Association of Fire Fighters.

It is the first time that private-sector emergency services workers in New Jersey have organized.

Nurses, paramedics, dispatchers and emergency medical technicians with Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp. voted by an overwhelming margin on June 15 to join the IAFF. Workers voted 286-136 to affiliate. The new local will represent 541 workers.

Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp. – known as MONOC – is a privately held, non-profit corporation that provides pre-hospital emergency health care from Passaic in northern New Jersey to Atlantic City, in the state’s southern region.

“We really need to move EMS into the forefront with police and fire in New Jersey. We’re 20 years behind in this state,” said Sherrie LaBarre, interim president of the new local. “We must bring the emergency medical response system into the 21st Century and recognize that EMS workers are professionals who have committed their lives to serve the public.”

The new local will press for improvements in salary and benefits for MONOC employees.

“EMS workers in New Jersey respond to meet the emergency medical needs in the community every day,” IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger said. “They deserve pay and benefits that reflect their value and service.”

Salaries and benefit of paramedics and emergency medical services workers are woefully inadequate in New Jersey. They have no pensions, and salaries of emergency medical technicians are $25,000 lower than the state’s poverty level.

The membership of the new local will elect its leadership in upcoming meetings, then the local’s new leadership will begin collectively bargaining a first contract.

The International Association of Fire Fighters, headquartered in Washington, DC, represents more than 280,000 full-time professional fire fighters and paramedics who protect 80 percent of the nation’s population. More information is available at www.iaff.org.

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