First Responders Deserve Better – Vote NO on Proposition 11

NOTA BENA: This is an embarrassingly lengthy letter, but, if you truly care about the safety, well-
being, and fair treatment of First Responders, I beg you to read it in its entirety. And I sincerely thank
you in advance!

19 October 2018
Northridge, California

To my Family, Friends, and Colleagues in California (or registered to vote in California):

November 6 is Election Day. As a fictional US president once said, decisions are made by those who
show up. For that reason, I sincerely hope each of you will exercise the right for which so many
before us suffered and sacrificed so much to secure for as all and cast your ballot!

Once again, voters of the Golden State have been presented with a plethora of ballot propositions.
While discussion of the merits and demerits of the ballot initiative process is best left for another
time, there is one proposition in particular to which I’d very much like to draw your attention.
Proposition 11, the DISHONESTLY entitled Ambulance Employees Paid On-Call Breaks, Training, and
Mental Health Services Initiative, is in actuality a legislative wolf in sheep’s clothing. If passed, Prop
11 would make already difficult working conditions for paramedics and EMTs even more perilous
and burdensome.

As most of you know, roughly a year and a half ago I began laying the groundwork for a radical
career change. For the past year I worked as a full-time Emergency Medical Technician in a busy 911
system in Southern California’s notorious Antelope Valley. I now work for another 911 ambulance
service elsewhere in Los Angeles County. I have loved and excelled at this job far more than I initially
thought I would, so much so that I plan to further develop my career by attending a local fire
academy as well as paramedic school over the next two years.

I sincerely love what I do. Those of us who work in EMS know the risks of what we, but we still do it
because we are called to serve the public. Prop 11, however, would make our already difficult jobs
even more so while also potentially putting us and the public at greater risk. Prop 11 is a slap in the
face to committed First Responders everywhere. Let’s look at the initiative in detail…

Follow the Money

The single largest funder of this ballot initiative – in fact, the ONLY funder on record – is American
Medical Response (AMR), this country’s largest private ambulance service; a company that,
throughout its long and often controversial history, has seemingly always prioritized profits over
personnel and savings over safety. AMR have spent a staggering $22 million in support of this state
ballot initiative alone, while at the same time stonewalling pay increases for many of its minimum
wage field crews as well as neglecting to provide much needed station and equipment upgrades.
This mere fact alone should tell us all we need to know about the true motives of this private
corporation. (Full disclosure: I recently resigned from AMR in favour of another 911 ambulance
service based in LA County.) Some of AMR’s massive $22 million war chest has been used to produce
slick yet wildly misleading television commercials with the sole purpose of scaring and confusing
voters. Unfortunately, EMS unions and advocacy groups across the state haven’t had anywhere near
the money or resources to be able to counter AMR’s deceptive $22 million campaign of lies and
misrepresentations. Just a few weeks from Election Day, we are forced to rely on word-of-mouth
and on the goodwill of our family and friends in helping us spread the truth about Prop 11.

The Lie & The Truth

Please do not let the authors and funders of Prop 11 fool you. They want you to think that if this
ballot measure fails, response times to 911 emergency medical calls could be delayed if available
units are on a break. This is a complete and total LIE. The reality is, and always has been, that the
closest available unit to an emergency call responds to the call. Period. It doesn’t matter if we’re on
a break or five minutes from the end of our shift. And every paramedic and EMT knows that that’s
what the job requires.

The REAL motivation behind Prop 11, and something AMR conveniently leaves out of its glossy TV
ads, is that California labour law requires paramedics and EMTs who work upwards of 10, 12, and
frequently 24 hour shifts to be provided a number of uninterrupted 30-minute meal/rest breaks at
various times during those shifts. State law also requires that if those meal/rest breaks are not
provided or are interrupted, that the employee is entitled to additional compensation in lieu.
Truthfully, everyone in EMS knows there this no such thing as an uninterrupted break. We are all
used to rushed bathroom visits, half-eaten or wasted meals, and interrupted sleep. When someone
calls with a medical emergency we stop what we’re doing, and we answer the call. That’s the job,
and we all know that. AMR is currently facing a number of pending lawsuits from paramedics and
EMTs who were denied their breaks as well as compensation for those missed breaks. AMR’s
motivation in writing Prop 11 is to use the ballot initiative process to (1) nullify the pending lawsuits
against them, (2) allow them to save millions of dollars in future by no longer requiring them or other
private ambulance companies to compensate employees for missed meal and rest breaks, and (3) to
force the taxpayers of California to fund a defense of Prop 11 should it pass but later be challenged in
court. This proposition is ACTUALLY about allowing AMR and other ambulance services to save
millions of dollars now and in the future in additional employee compensation. This, my friends, is
objectively wrong and is a betrayal of the brave men and women who serve the public by providing
emergency medical care.

Something else to consider about Prop 11 is the potential risk to First Responders’ health and
safety. Theoretically speaking, if Prop 11 passes, a paramedic or EMT working a 10, 12, or 24 hour
shift could be denied the chance for a break during that entire shift. Would you really want the
ambulance crew dispatched to your home for a medical emergency at 2 o’clock in the morning to
have been worked to the point of exhaustion, potentially putting your safety as well as theirs at
risk?! Of course not.

My friend and former colleague EMT Michael Diaz, president of IAEP Local 77, said in a recent article
that Prop 11 isn’t about public safety at all, but rather “trying to extract machine-level work from
human beings.” He says that for ambulance companies like AMR “the most efficient ambulance crew
is one that is one a call for every hour of your 24-hour shift. We’re not machines. We need rest.”
(You can read the entire article via California Healthline.)

Don’t Take My Word For It

In addition to the article on California Healthline, the San Diego Union Tribune said this in a recent
op-ed:

“American Medical Response, a for-profit ambulance corporation, that operates throughout

California, has illegally withheld millions of dollars in pay to EMS workers… It is now being sued by its
employees in a case entitled Bartoni v. AMR. If found liable, AMR could owe as much as $100 million
in settlements. Instead of paying the money owed, AMR is spending millions to put Proposition 11 on
November’s ballot, which would allow the company to avoid paying back its workers. This is immoral,
irresponsible and puts the health of our first responders and our communities at risk.

The emergency medical services profession is known to cause significant physical and mental strain
on its work force. According to the Journal of Emergency Medical Services in 2015, first responders
are 10 times more likely to attempt suicide than the general public. Unfortunately, the existing
mental health counselling, through employee assistance programs, often times is not designed to
provide the critical incident and stress management therapy that my co-workers are in dire need of.
AMR would like you to believe there will be an increase in these services, even though these existing
services are often found woefully inadequate in mitigating the trauma.

At your local supermarket or mall, you might have heard claims that Proposition 11 would improve
response times with additional training and require adequate staffing levels. This is outright false.
This initiative requires no additional training than what is currently offered. This initiative also lets
the ambulance companies unilaterally determine the standards for training.

This initiative will do nothing to improve response times, as response times are mandated by the
contract these companies enter into with the local government to provide service. This initiative does
not even define staffing standards.

AMR is not fooling anyone. Proposition 11 is a sham to skirt paying its employees, your first
responders. The company has no interest in altering staffing practices to hire enough workers to
service California communities, because that would decrease its profit margins. (You can read the
entire op-ed here.)

Conclusion: Why This Matters

No one makes a career in EMS to get rich. Paramedics and EMTs daily risk our lives, health, and,
often, our sanity in order to bring comfort and healing to the sick and injured. We are there on what
is often the worst day of person’s life, and we bring professionalism, skill, and compassion into some
of the darkest places imaginable. I think we can all agree that an already difficult job should not be
made even more so as a result of the greed and mendacity of certain private, for-profit ambulance
companies. This November 6, please say yes to the dedicated, selfless paramedics and EMTs of
California and say no to unbridled corporate greed. Please vote NO on Proposition 11.

If you are not yet registered to vote in California, you may do so easily and quickly online by visiting
https://registertovote.ca.gov/. Please note, the deadline to register is October 22!

Spread the Word!

Please consider sharing this letter with every eligible voter you know. Permission is granted to
forward or publish provided that my email address is removed before sharing.

Appreciatively,

J. Anthony McAlister, NREMT, FSA Scot

ps
Friends, one last request: If an emergency vehicle approaches with lights and siren activated please slow
down, pull to the right, and STOP. Nearly half of all EMS personnel deaths are the result of traffic accidents.
Please do your part to ensure that we all get to go home at the end of the day.