Working on an ambulance for over 25 years with American Medical Response (AMR), the author of Proposition 11, I have gained a unique perspective of what it means to provide emergency medical services (EMS), my duty to the citizens of the community we serve, as well as my fellow EMS professionals.

Being employed as a paramedic is a tough job. We work 12-hour shifts with low pay, frequently without breaks, and work in some of the most traumatic of environments. In 2014, more than a third of the EMTs and paramedics in California were considered low-wage workers, earning less than $13.63 an hour, and it hasn’t changed much today. However, I love what I do, and I enjoy serving the people of my community.

Related: Prop. 11 is about public safety and ensuring quick emergency medical response

Unfortunately, the private sector EMS workers in California are struggling. With ever-increasing calls, fatigue and lack of meal breaks, my colleagues and I are under more stress than ever before.


Providers across the state need support, but Proposition 11 is not the answer.

State law currently requires that employees working 12-hour shifts are eligible to take 30-minute breaks every five or six hours, separated from their work. Unpaid meal periods must meet certain requirements, or else they are considered an on-duty meal period, and then the employee must be paid. Since we do not have designated rest/meal spaces, you might have seen us taking our breaks on street corners, in a restaurant, or in our ambulances, all the while listening to our radios for an emergency. When we are dispatched for an emergency call, we’re legally entitled to receive compensation for the interruption.

However, AMR is choosing to not properly compensate its employees for their on-duty meal and rest periods. In other words, this initiative allows one private ambulance company to abuse the initiative process and taxpayer dollars to let themselves “off the hook” for violating the rights of its employees.

America Medical Response, a for-profit ambulance corporation, that operates throughout California, has illegally withheld millions of dollars in pay to EMS workers, some of whom are my co-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 counseling, 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.


Minimizing health risks to EMTs and paramedics, your first responders, should be the top priority for the industry. Workers should be provided access to adequate meal and rest breaks or be appropriately compensated for missed breaks per existing state law. Appropriate resources should be directed towards mental health care, which Proposition 11 fails to accomplish. At the end of the day, this cynical initiative is yet another example of the abuse of California’s initiative process at the hands of a for-profit corporation.

Brollini is executive director, United EMS Workers, AFSCME Local 4911.