LEWISTON, Maine — A little more than a year ago, 95 percent of United Ambulance Service workers decided to unionize. The emergency responders who serve Androscoggin County and surrounding regions cited concerns about safety at the time, which they say is still a concern.
Five off-duty workers employed with the service voiced their concerns with NEWS CENTER Maine from their perspective as dispatchers, paramedics, and EMS workers. All five agreed their top priority is always to provide the best care to people who call 911 and are in need, but they also said the ambulance company workers are not operating under the best safety conditions.
"Some of the issues are some of the long-distance transfers," Rob Melotto, a paramedic with the service, said. "We are obligated to do them for the hospitals here locally, because they own us. But we are going into different areas now, when doing trips that take us sometimes an hour to get there just to do the transport, and it's taking away from our community and surrounding communities that send their services to come cover the calls we can't."
Paramedic supervisor Mike Joyce said there's a lack of consistency within the company.
"Consistency in policies and procedures, consistency in discipline, consistency in the whole day-to-day operation," Joyce listed.
Ed Marzano works for Teamsters Local 340, a local labor union.
"Overwhelmingly, the majority of people at United Ambulance wanted to be represented by a union and wanted a union moving forward," Marzano said. "That just gives you kind of an idea how bad things were inside."
Most of the issues happening revolve around safety.
In addition to driving long distances outside their coverage area, workers say the ambulance service is understaffed. It is also standard to work 24-hour shifts.
But on top of that, the workers said they regularly have to pick up non-emergency calls and provide transports for people who may not be experiencing an emergency, but the provided ride brings in extra money for the private ambulance company.
"Everybody needs to make money. That's very important. But you have to do it safely," Joyce said. "A good company treats your employees well, and this is what we need the union for."
"That's what the biggest frustrating piece has been, when they do the non-emergency work," Marzano said. "It comes with traveling from 4 to 500 miles, turning around, and doing another one, coming back to Maine, and going to Logan Airport [in Boston]. They never say no to those transports, and that's a problem we are trying to fix."
Marzano also said wages and retirement packages have been addressed, and the initial long list of concerns has gone down, but now they are dealing with the most critical issues, like working conditions and safety. It's among the reasons why the workers have not agreed to a new contract.
"We are all looking for the company to do some 'good faith' negotiations, so we can get all this behind us and focus on what the job we do is," Melotto said.
"I love this job. I love every day coming to work," Joyce said.
"We want United to come to their senses," Marzano said. "Hopefully the executive director will come to the table and help push this forward, because he's been silent so far. We don't know why."
NEWS CENTER Maine's Hannah Yechivi reached out to the executive director for United Ambulance Service, but she did not hear back.
The operations manager at the ambulance company picked up the phone but declined to comment on any of the safety concerns the workers have raised.
Marzano and his team, Teamsters Local 340, have filed for mediation and are waiting for the executives at United Ambulance to respond, all in hopes to avoid getting closer to a possible strike.