David DeMille

ddemille@thespectrum.com

ST. GEORGE – With St. George City in the process of finalizing a written set of ordinances regulating the city's ambulance service, employees with private provider Gold Cross Ambulance have unionized in an effort to improve pay and work conditions.

Citing a lack of facilities available to the company's 20-plus paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians working in the St. George area, as well as pay starting as low as $11 per hour for paramedics, employees approached the Utah Teamsters about organizing earlier this year, said Spencer Hogue, secretary treasurer and business agent with the Teamsters Local 222 in Salt Lake City.

Employees voted to join in September, and the union has already initiated negotiations with Gold Cross management about improving work conditions, Hogue said.

Gold Cross employees, like those at many ambulance providers, work 24-hour shifts, and industry standards call for workstations to be equipped with kitchens, sleeping areas and other amenities, Hogue said, indicating that the company has not acquired or built anything to meet those standards.

There had been no talk yet of improving pay, but Hogue said six additional bargaining sessions have already been scheduled before November.

"At this point, we're just trying to bargain the best conditions we can to get them what they deserve," he said.

Gold Cross President Mike Moffitt was not immediately available for comment late Wednesday.

Better pay and benefits for employees were some of the arguments made by Gold Cross management when the company applied for the exclusive rights to provide ambulance services in the St. George area.

The company took over the city's ambulance care early last year after a 2-year fight with former longtime provider Dixie Ambulance Services.

That decision came down to a state-run hearing, with the state health director ruling in Gold Cross's favor after the company promised to come in better equipped, more organized and more fit to meet the city's needs moving forward.

Since then, city officials have been working to develop a set of ambulance service standards, including requirements for certain numbers of ambulances and paramedics, livable work facilities, and the designation of an area supervisor.

Earlier this year, Moffitt balked at some of the proposals being outlined as part of the standards, such as designating the number of ambulances that should be used, arguing that while a provider should be required to meet its response time and care standards, it should be up to the provider to decide how to meet those standards.

Councilwoman Michele Randall, whose family owned Dixie Ambulance before it closed, said the standards are scheduled for consideration by the city council during its Oct. 30 meeting.

"It's a fair ordinance," she said. "We're not asking for anything out of the ordinary."

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