Chicago firefighters union criticizes city overtime, demands more ambulances

CHICAGO — Members of the Chicago Firefighters Union spoke out Monday, accusing the city of spending millions on overtime pay for paramedics instead of spending it in the places they need help.

The Chicago Fire Department has been operating for more than three years without a contract as union members negotiate with the city to attain an additional 20 ambulances to bring the fleet up to 100.

WGN News was told that the 80 ambulances currently in use are run-ragged. Paramedics are sent all over the city, and dispatchers call daily begging for an available rig.

Anthony Snyder, the lead EMS director for Local 2, said that the national average of citizens served by an ambulance is around 21,000.

In Chicago, that number is more than 34,000 citizens per ambulance. He’s also tallied up the cost of overtime to the city of Chicago and conservatively estimates that about $2 million were spent in the last two months alone on paramedics’ overtime pay.

Snyder and others with the union feel the money could be better spent on new rigs to help ease the workload for those on the road.

Matthew Closhessy, who works on ambulance 10—widely regarded as not just the busiest in the city but amongst the busiest in the country—says he routinely has to pick up overtime shifts. Closhessy says that having time to breathe is a rarity when he’s at work.

“All the ambos by us are go, go, go from when you walk in until you leave,” Closhessy said. “Yesterday was a random Sunday in October and we did 30 calls.”

Picking up overtime is common, Closhessy added.

“It’s not uncommon to see multiple people shot in the same day,” he said.

According to Snyder, a conservative estimate of paramedics’ overtime costs in August was approximately $1.3 million. For September, it was another estimated $1.1 million.

“It’s counter-intuitive to hear, ‘We are broke,’ but we have all that money for overtime,” he said.

Union president Pat Clearly told WGN News that multiple problems with the fire apparatus continue.

Snyder said that continuing this way is not sustainable.

“We’re seeing people injured and fatigued,” he said. “We need the extra apparatus to spread the load amongst more people so it’s sustainable for a career’s worth of service.”

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