{"id":327580,"date":"2026-08-22T23:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/327580\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T23:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:22:12","slug":"old-boys-club-wont-decide-ems-promotions-anymore-union-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/327580\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Old boys club&#8217; won&#8217;t decide EMS promotions anymore, union says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>EMS workers scored a win in court this week when a judge determined their promotions should be based on \u201cmerit and fitness\u201d \u2013 not decided by a \u201cgood old boys\u2019 club,\u201d a union leader said.<\/p>\n<p>Several municipal unions petitioned the State Supreme Court to force the city to comply with a 2019 state law that requires the FDNY to give promotional tests for the positions of EMS Captain, Deputy Chief, Division Chief or Division Commander, according to court documents.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40464096\" width=\"558\" height=\"558\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/vincent-variale-president-uniformed-ems-138199915.jpg\" alt=\"Vincent Variale, president of Uniformed EMS Officers Union Local 3621, smiling.\" class=\"wp-image-40464096\" style=\"width:558px;height:auto;aspect-ratio:1;display:block\"\/>Vincent Variale, president of Uniformed EMS Officers Union Local 3621, fought for tests for EMS promotions. facebook\/vincent.variale<\/p>\n<p>The unions claimed that for more than five years \u201crespondents ignored the statute and continued to fill vacancies in the high-level, life-critical emergency medical ranks\u201d through an arbitrary process, the documents show.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was basically a good old boys\u2019 club,\u201d Vincent Variale, president of the EMS officers\u2019 union Local 3621, told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40464001\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/general-view-fdny-ems-ambulance-137588200.jpg\" alt=\"FDNY EMS ambulance driving in New York City.\" class=\"wp-image-40464001\"\/>EMS promotions were based on an arbitrary internal process, the unions contended. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis decision makes clear that EMS Officers in the FDNY are entitled to the same benefits as Fire Officers, including unbiased promotions through a competitive examination that selects those most qualified, not an arbitrary internal process that imposes unreasonable requirements and results in discrimination and promotions that are not based on merit and fitness,\u201d Variale said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The larger fight that lies ahead for the union and its members is getting EMS workers the same pay that FDNY smokeaters receive, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is one major step in the right direction,\u201d he said. \u201cWe hope the city will follow through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s press office didn\u2019t immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the decision. The initial petition seeking action was filed while former Mayor Eric Adams was in office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EMS workers scored a win in court this week when a judge determined their promotions should be based&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9173,9174,194,57,9,56,63,65,64,3555,58],"class_list":["post-327580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-ambulances","tag-ems","tag-fdny","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-unions","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}