UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

INDEPENDENT CERTIFIED EMERGENCY PROFESSIONALS, LOCAL NO. 1

9th Circuit Order No. 11-71785 (September 23rd, 2011)

PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL TRANSPORT, INC. d/b/a PMT AMBULANCE

Summary of events in Support of “Request for Review”

Statements of Facts

1) (a) The ICEP is an employee created and operated union in Maricopa County,

The 6th largest Metropolitan Area in the Country.

(b) We are employed by Professional Medical Transport, Previously a partnership,

now a subsidiary of Rural Metro LLC.

(c) The ICEP was founded in July of 2006 under a voluntary recognition by the

employer.

(d) The relationship deteriorated in 2008 when the ICEP filed its first ULP charge

after 2 years of being ignored by the employer for contract negotiations.

(e) The employer quickly withdrew recognition of the union and sued the

President and the Union in Arizona Superior Court for Defamation and slander

while simultaneously stopping dues collections.

2) (a) The employer terminated the President by Blackberry message prior to the

first NLRB hearing and reinstated shortly after a ULP was filed.

(b) The President self-litigate the law suit until the court mandated the Union be

represented by counsel. The Presidents homeowners insurance provided legal

counsel for the civil case. Total expenditure:

(c) 1 year of self-representation by the President

$108,000 dollars covered by insurance.

(d) The NLRB hearing that was concurrent with the law suit continued. Multiple

union stewards and employees testified before the court.

3) (a) Ryan Brockhouse, an ICEP union steward, was terminated immediately upon

close of the case. The company’s justification asserted the Brockhouse had a

“Driving Under the Influence” and was terminated for Just cause.

(b) A quick submission of Brockhouse’s Motor Vehicles report showed now such

violation. PMT Ambulance had intentionally filed false information to the US

Government to justify their retaliatory acts.

18 USC 35 - Imparting or conveying false information

Sec. 35. Imparting or conveying false information(a) Whoever imparts or conveys

or causes to be imparted or conveyed false information, knowing the information

to be false, concerning an attempt or alleged attempt being made or to be made,

to do any act which would be a crime prohibited by this chapter or chapter 97 or

chapter 111 of this title shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $1,000

which shall be recoverable in a civil action brought in the name of the United

States.

(b) Whoever willfully and maliciously, or with reckless disregard for the safety of

human life, imparts or conveys or causes to be imparted or conveyed false

information, knowing the information to be false, concerning an attempt or

alleged attempt being made or to be made, to do any act which would be a crime

prohibited by this chapter or chapter 97 or chapter 111 of this title—shall be fine

under this title, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

18 U.S. Code § 1513 - Retaliating against a witness, victim, or an

informant

(e) Whoever knowingly, with the intent to retaliate, takes any action harmful to

any person, including interference with the lawful employment or livelihood of any

person, for providing to a law enforcement officer any truthful information

relating to the commission or possible commission of any Federal offense, shall be

fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.

(f) Whoever conspires to commit any offense under this section shall be subject to

the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense the commission of which

was the object of the conspiracy.

(g) A prosecution under this section may be brought in the district in which the

official proceeding (whether pending, about to be instituted, or completed) was

intended to be affected, or in which the conduct constituting the alleged offense

occurred. (2counts)

For the sake of redundancy the affirmation USC codes are references throughout

this document as “aforementioned”

4) (a)The employer then went after the Union appointed Business manager for

“Hippa” violations that were not hippa violations, write-ups and harassment until

she quit in lieu of termination under immense pressure by this unlawful Medicare

Contractor. 2010-2011. the incident was reversed in court and the business

Manager (Linda Combs) returned to duty. PMT again harassed her, with multiple

investigations for no stated reason, no policy violations and no justification. Linda

Combs finally quit the company, not to return. (Count 3 of the aforementioned 2

US codes.)

5) 2011, the Region sent the 2009 case to the 9th circuit for non-compliance and it

was upheld by the summer of 2011.

6) (a) 2010-2011, PMT then fabricated, conspired, executed a closer search of the

Union Presidents personal quarters. The entire fiasco was recorded by the “Risk

Manager” of PMT Ambulance, with the Human Resource Officer, The Medicare

Compliance Officer and the General Operations Manager all participating. They

had already suspended the President in lieu of investigation and then began that

investigation by threatening the then Union VP with termination if he did on

assist with the investigation (also on video).

(b) The President of the Union was on Administrative leave for 3 months, his

quarters searched, another HIPPA violation fabricated, followed by a demotion

and transfer of the President. Courtroom proceedings at Region 28 proved the

entire event was fabricated by PMT Ambulance and their senior officials, while

the HIPPA violation did not meet the standard and was dismissed. Post event,

PMT Ambulance was investigated by HHS and the final determination based on

PMTs answers was that there were not a “covered entity”. PMT is covered if

you are trying to terminate the Union President; PMT is not covered if you are

being investigated for HIPPA violations with a financial fine possible. The

President, was still not offered his pay scale back or his position until the Grand

settlement of 2012, which obviously has not been complied with either.

(Count 4, 5 6 of the aforementioned USC violations, 2 counts violating a District

Court Order, 1 count of Hippa violations)

(c) Moving Forward, the Union President was again attacked by PMT and their

customers in a 30 day ruse to insinuate a 23 year paramedic and 2008

“paramedic of the year” was now somehow a threat to their cities operations.

The same city that has:

- a financial interest and partnership with our ambulance company,

-a financial interest in transporting as many patients as they can

-a financial interest in subcontracting all or some of the work from PMT

Ambulance

- A stated interest in taking over the ambulance jobs that the ICEP has court

orders to stop without negotiating and a tentative agreement in place preventing

more subcontracting

(now the center of the storm keeping us from completing a CBA).

A charge was filed against another sister city that had taken all of the ICEP

positions without negotiating with full knowledge of the orders, yet continued

anyway. Within days of the ICEPs charge, a partner city launched and

“investigation” against the Union President in an attempt to remove his career as

a Paramedic. They failed.

(Count 7 of the US Code violations and count 3 violation of the 9th circuit court

order.)

(d) Continuing to another attack on the Union Vice President.

This was the same man that they threatened with termination if he didn’t assist in

the closet search, (recorded on video) now suspended for an expired certification

that wasn’t expired. With no notice, Travis Yates was suspended without pay

(2014) prior to his certification being expired. Simultaneously, the ICEP had

finished another case for retaliation against the Secretary Treasurer from August

of 2013. So the company made Mr. Yates whole and withdrew his suspension.

(Mr. Yates was a Federal witness in the 2011 case making this count # 8)

6) (a) 2014. After 5 cases were settled in an informal settlement CA-28-119750,

the company continued their never-ending harassment of their employees and

continued violation of labor law that they just signed a settlement saying they

would never do again.

(b) 2 experienced nurses were suspended for the “certification expiration” on

licenses and certifications that were not expire. To add to the insult, the company

did not notify the Union or negotiate with them over the suspension. The ICEP is

now objecting to any settlement that is not a formal settlement and does not

have a CBA attached prior to that settlement. This was the stated plan 4 years

ago and the Region shows no movement in that direction, even after being over

rode in the Grand Settlement of 2012, the year we were supposed to finally get

our first contract.

(c) Since those two unlawful suspensions, the company has done it again with 4

other individuals with one of those being Brad Taylor, formally subpoenaed by the

National Labor Relations Board as a Federal witness, and ICEP Vice President.

This case was filed and he was victim #6 of the “suspension without negotiations

rule” that the company has lost all credibility on. This is standard operating

procedure, regardless of law, agreement or settlement. (Count #9 of USC code

and victim number 6 of the suspension rule)

(d) Shortly thereafter, PMT called in (unannounced) our Union Secretary

Treasurer (as of 2013) Matthew Swartz to a meeting with the same city officials

that retaliated against the union president and for the same motive. And yet

again, not only was there no violation of policy, law or operating procedure, this

case was created by a Fire Captain that inserted his opinion on social media.

Basically, you had 3 Chiefs, and EMS coordinator, a captain, 3 firefighters and a

PMT regional manager badgering our Secretary Treasurer over a conversation

that had nothing to do with them and was none of their business.

(Intimidation, manufactured complaints,)

In Summary,

The Regions failure to enforce the law of the 9th Circuit court has resulted in open

season on the ICEP officers. The company has brought in another raiding union to

help them get rid of this legal matter and it is spearheaded by a man that was

proven to be conspiring with management as an ICEP official, prior to the court

case of August 5th, 2013. This revelation was completed in the spring of 2014

when the information request was filled secondary to another charge by the ICEP.

The collusion was with Greg Empey, former ICEP Business Manager. The collusion

was a big part of the lost jobs we suffered in Chandler Arizona by documenting

“negotiations”, but were without the presence of the Union President and

without vote of the Union Executive board. Polices and agreements were signed

off on that showed “good faith bargaining was in process”, which we now know,

were not.

The Chandler case was a violation of the 9th circuit order in and of itself, (on

appeal before the Board since January) but the Region refused to subpoena any

documents from the city as they did in 2008-9 that set the case law on this issue.

The Region changed the charge from “unlawful subcontracting” to “ failure to

negotiate on the removal of ICEP paramedics and the closing of their stations.”

Appeal pending. It presents itself as a diversion to keep PMT out of a criminal

violation..

Now during negotiations, we have the Rural Metro attorney setting all the rules,

which we complied with. Mandating “all inclusive proposals be sent by email and

would be returned the same way”. Until it was time to pony up with a wage

proposal, then it’s “I never said that”, and “I will sue you for defamation” and

“your assertions bore me”. You can see that they have no fear of the NLRB at all,

and the ICEP has to agree with them on this issue.

This is just a summary as we remember is with the disclaimer that there were

more retaliations and more terminations than one can count or keep track of. In

the Grand settlement of 2012, we had 450 people financially reimbursed for the

unlawful subcontracting to firefighters. We only had 240 people in the company

meaning that 210 were terminated or left the company in the interim. We

estimate that number to be twice that now. The cases are all in your files and the

9th circuit court order is a matter of law. It is what it is and it needs to be enforced

immediately for the sake of law and order, public safety and any notion of having

federal Witnesses testify for you in the future.

Tally

9 counts of 18 U.S. Code § 1513 - Retaliating against a witness, victim, or an

informant

2 counts of 18 USC 35 - Imparting or conveying false information

Multiple violations of a Circuit Court Order.

/s/ Joshua S. Barkley ICEP President.

CC: Robert Coyle, Counsel for the Respondent

Cornelle Overstreet, Region 28

William Mabry, General Counsel