A fire station in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood was operating without its truck Monday after it went down for service over the weekend.
“They had no spare rigs available so they sent them back to firehouse without a truck,” said Local 2 Union President Patrick Cleary. “I’ve been doing this for 37 years. I’ve never worked a day where they say we don’t have any rigs for you guys to work today.”
The Englewood station still has its engine, which has a hose to put water on fires. However, they are typically accompanied by a truck, which has crews and equipment to break windows, walls and work on the roof for ventilation.
A CFD spokesperson said other area trucks are assisting the Englewood station until Truck 20 returns.
All these issues, Cleary believes, can be helped with a new contract. The union’s contract with the city expired three years ago.
“They don’t give us counter proposals. We give them proposals, they give us nothing,” he said.
Part of the union’s demands are to add more paramedics and 20 additional ambulances to the fleet.
Alderman Nicholas Sposato, of the city’s 38th Ward on the Northwest Side, was a Chicago firefighter for 18 years. He said the department is short on paramedics and trucks, but it comes down to budget issues.
“They’re short on paramedics, they’re short on rigs but hopefully that gets resolved in this next contract. But 20 rigs is a lot to put on at one time,” he said.
He also said there is a shortage of paramedics who want to work in major cities like Chicago right now.
“Why would they work in Chicago and do 25, 30 runs a day when they could go to the local suburbs for 5-6 runs a day,” he said. “If anyone were to ride along with an ambulance, especially in the summer time, and the South and the West side, they’re constantly running, they’re running all day, running to the point where it gets dangerous they get tired.”
The union is set to meet with the city for negotiations again in November.