PEP, March 2006: Humanitarian under fire

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

While dozens of union members have told PEP they are ambivalent about the war in Iraq, EMS Lieutenant and Local 3621 member Mike Glenn is clear about his feelings: “I’d rather be over there keeping them off balance,” said Glenn, an Army Reservist since 1987.

Glenn lost two colleagues on Sept. 11. “I worked with Carlos Lillo and with Ricky Quinn,” he said, referring to the Paramedics who were killed as the Twin Towers collapsed. So when he was called up in January 2005, he was ready.

Dozens of Emergency Medical Service workers are among the 1,600 city employees called to active duty since 9/11.

Building up Baghdad
During his six-month tour of duty, Sgt. Glenn worked as a civil affairs specialist, collaborating with an Iraqi team in Baghdad to identify problem areas. As a project manager, he also coordinated construction of highways, schools and medical clinics. His unit distributed schoolbooks, coats and candy to Iraqi children.

“The people I dealt with treated me very well,” said Glenn, who learned a little Arabic during his stay. “Our objective was to have them eventually take control and put ourselves out of a job.”

Although he came under fire from enemy snipers, once in a helicopter, he completed his tour in June 2005 and returned safe and sound to his wife and six children in Brooklyn.

However there was also some bad news awaiting him: While he was serving his country, the Fire Dept. of New York had passed over Glenn for a promotion from Paramedic to Lieutenant. Officials said he missed the deadline for accepting the promotion.

Glenn pointed out that the department had made exceptions for Firefighters serving overseas. He went to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, which ruled that denying his promotion violated federal regulations. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta officiated at his promotion Jan. 20. At that ceremony, the FDNY used a satellite hookup with Iraq to let Army Sgt. Patricia Foley participate in her promotion from Paramedic to Lieutenant.

“I have to give a lot of credit to the guys in Battalion 10, they were behind me all the way,” he said of his colleagues at the Harlem ambulance station.

Before he came to EMS in 1995, Glenn worked at the Metropolitan Ambulance Corp. There he enlisted in another battle, the fight to organize a union. “No vacation pay, no sick pay, it was terrible,” he said of his days in the private sector. “Once we started to organize, management began making some changes and the workers thought that was enough. They didn’t realize that without a union those benefits could be taken away. So they didn’t vote for a union.”

Members of Uniformed Emergency Medical Service Officers Local 3621 and Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics Local 2507 have worked without a contract for over three years, and their negotiations with the city are stalemated (see details).

“Our skills have changed dramatically over the years, but the pay structure has not, so the job has become a stepping stone,” said Glenn, whose interest in becoming a Paramedic started in 1984 when he joined his high school ambulance corps.

Lt. Glenn is happy to be home with his family and back on the job, but he knows he can be recalled to Iraq at any time. “If I have to go, I have to go,” he says calmly. “It’s part of the contract.”