Labor Complaints Filed Against Gloucester Township EMS Alliance

The Gloucester Township EMS Alliance has been charged with engaging in violating the rights of emergency medical technicians, including the improper termination of two EMT employees, according to a complaint obtained by Patch.

Gloucester Township EMS Alliance denies the allegations, and its attorney in the case claims the employees in question were not terminated. Instead, she said they were suspended after several co-workers filed harassment complaints against them.

Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board Dennis Walsh has scheduled a hearing for June 15 at the NLRB’s Region 4 office in Philadelphia.

The Gloucester Township EMS Alliance is a non-profit company that provides ambulance and rescue services. It is not related to the municipality.

A total of six complaints were filed following a four-month investigation into the results of an election concerning the possibility of unionizing medical technicians at Gloucester Township EMS Alliance, according to the International Association of Firefighters Local 3249.

Complaints were filed by the union, as well as Gregory Bumgardner and Mark Fedorich, each of whom are claiming they were wrongfully terminated.

Gloucester Township EMS Alliance Chief Mark Kramer and Board of Directors President Ray Currey Jr. allegedly interrogated employees on multiple occasions, both by phone and in person, concerning their union activities after Gloucester Township’s Emergency Medical Technicians sought union representation through Camden County International Association of Firefighters Local 3249 in September.

The proposal was voted down, but the result remains in question due to the allegations of employer intimidation.

According to Lori Armstrong Halber, of Fisher and Phillips LLP out of Philadelphia, other employees filed harassment charges against Bumgardner and Fedorich, although she couldn’t elaborate on those details in advance of the hearings.

In 2012, the EMS Alliance was ordered out of service after it was discovered that five Gloucester Township EMS Alliance ambulances and an SUV were not registered, with two ambulances also uninspected.

It was replaced by Kennedy Health System. The EMS Alliance reorganized under its current structure and was reinstated six months later.

According to International Association of Firefighters Local 3249 President Keith Kemery, it was at this point that employees began to seek union representation.

The complainants are asking for their jobs back, as well as reimbursements for all search for work and work related expenses, regardless of if they received interim earnings of any kind at any time or during the overall payback period. This would include at least five months of base pay.

They are also asking that a “responsible official with the Gloucester Township EMS Alliance read the Notice of Employees on work time so as to reach the widest possible audience of its employees.”