Interview with Anthony Almojera
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A full-length in-depth interview with Anthony Almojera.
Almojera is a FDNY EMS lieutenant and vice president of AFSCME DC37 Local 3621, the New York City Fire Department's EMS officers' union. He is the author of Riding The Lightning. A Year in the Life of a New York City Paramedic.
"The problem is EMS has been colonized. So the country that's been colonized never gets the abundance of resources. As a matter of fact, it gets taken from. And with EMS, the issue is you've never had the colonizer, the Fire Department ever advocate for EMS and its members. I've never heard one of their leaders come out and say, EMS deserves more money. From their union leaders...
Thank you Hal N. and Anthony Almojera: "N. : Can you tell me about the FDNY EMS Help Fund ? Almojera :?The Help Fund was started because in the Fire Department there was only the Honor emergency fund. And what happened was a lot of EMS members did not have access to that. They weren't helping them. So we realized that there was a need. The idea came out to start this Help Fund. And then we realized there's a need for assisting people who are in crisis. EMS members get 12 sick days a year. Fire, PD, Sanitation, Corrections get unlimited sick leave. So you have tons of EMS members who get sick because they deal with sick people, run out of sick time, go off payroll, lose their benefits, and then are destitute. So they have to have someplace to turn to just give them a lifeline for a little bit. And that's what the Help Fund does. It can't fix everything. It just gives you a flotation device for a month or two."