A dispute involving the City of Fairbanks, its firefighters union and the local technical college is complicating a program for training paramedics.
The possible ramifications of the dispute arose at a Fairbanks City Council meeting on Monday, as the council considered a doomed letter of agreement that the firefighters union had already voted down.
The issue centers around the way paramedic students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Community and Technical College gain 240 hours of required field training.
Students in the program have been doing that with the Fairbanks Fire Department (FFD). In August, the council and firefighters union agreed to a new contract, which was the product of lengthy negotiations and federal arbitration. That contract nixed the partnership.
Benjamin Nance is the medical director for the paramedic program at the technical college. He also graduated from the program in 2005, and Nance said Monday that the it produces about a third of paramedics who trained in the state.
“This is bigger than the City of Fairbanks. This is the state of Alaska’s ability to train paramedics,” he said. “And the firefighters union and the City of Fairbanks own this decision that was made. They’re going to have to defend their actions, and they’ll have to decide, again, what it is they stand for.”
Nance said FFD is the only agency in Interior Alaska that has a high enough call volume to satisfy the program requirements. For now, though, he said his immediate concern is for eight currently enrolled students who need the training.
“Their dreams here are not collective bargaining chips. Cutting these students off at the knees midway through their training is a disgusting thing to do,” Nance said.
On Monday, the council was tasked with voting on an ordinance to enter into a letter of agreement that would reestablish the partnership. But the ordinance was a non-starter because union members rejected the letter of agreement earlier this month.
Nick Clark, the president of the firefighters union, told the council that some issues have developed over the years that have “fallen on deaf ears.” For one, he said paramedics have sometimes gotten overloaded with training multiple students at a time, leading to safety concerns. Clark also said they’ve been left hanging without a clear training plan.
“What our members are saying is they want structure. They want communication. They want a plan. They want to know what they’re doing with the students day in and day out,” he said. “They don’t want to just show up to work and all of a sudden there’s several paramedic students with no plan, no preceptor training.”
In a previous meeting, Clark said FFD’s recruitment efforts have benefited from the local program. City officials have also been keen to add more paramedics to the department’s ranks, with the council approving a hiring bonus earlier this year as a recruitment measure.
Clark said Monday it’s ultimately not about union members disliking the program overall or not wanting to help out students.
“They know that we should be doing this, and they want to be doing this,” he said. “It needs to be done right.”
Instead of failing the ordinance Monday, the council voted unanimously to push the vote to Dec. 15 in hopes the city, union and technical college can use that time to find a solution. A fiscal note attached to the ordinance said approving the letter of agreement would cost the city about $31,000; city administrators said Monday that figure could change if the letter gets amended.