Ready-to-Strike Oregon AMR Workers Extend Pact

Portland-area ambulance workers who were poised to strike have agreed to extend their contract until Aug. 9, a union spokesman said Tuesday. Their employer, American Medical Response, asked the union last week for more time to continue negotiations.

"We're trying to bargain this out, not force a strike," said Jeff Birrer, a Portland paramedic and spokesman for the National Emergency Medical Services Association. The union represents about 600 emergency medical technicians, dispatchers and paramedics in Oregon and southwest Washington.

Union members voted overwhelmingly in June to authorize a strike, which they could have carried out as early as July 16. A strike would affect Multnomah and Clackamas counties in Oregon, and Clark and Cowlitz counties in Washington. The counties pay American Medical Response to supplement fire agency paramedics with on-site emergency care and transport to hospitals.

AMR is a unit of Emergency Medical Services Corp., a publicly traded, Colorado-based company that netted $39.1 million on revenues of $1.93 billion last year. Union members say they want raises to bring their compensation in line with AMR employees in other West Coast cities. Annual pay for EMTs ranges from about $24,800 to $28,500 in Portland, compared with $29,500 to $53,300 in Seattle, and $40,600 to $54,300 in Sacramento, according to the union.

AMR offered a 20 percent wage increase over three years, and a company spokeswoman said that would make compensation comparable to other West Coast employees, with the cost-of-living factor taken into account.

-- Joe Rojas-Burke