Winnipeg paramedic union calls for help amid 'unbelievable' violence levels, burnout on the job

CBC News

· Posted: May 07, 2025 2:47 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

The national representing paramedics successful Winnipeg is sounding the alarm astir mediocre moving conditions, pursuing results from a caller subordinate survey that showed precocious rates of unit and burnout connected the occupation and inadequate staffing and enactment from management.

Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union, said the survey highlighted problems that person "been near to fester for acold excessively long."

"Our members astatine the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service amusement up erstwhile our metropolis needs them, they amusement up erstwhile our citizens request them, and [they're] responding to calls that are getting progressively much analyzable and much difficult," Ross said astatine a Wednesday greeting quality league astatine Union Centre connected Broadway, successful downtown Winnipeg.

"They are being asked to bash much with less, and close present the metropolis and its enactment is not showing up for them."

The survey, which the national said got 205 responses from paramedics and dispatchers from April 2 to 9 — astir a 70 per cent effect complaint from members who received it — heard 93 per cent of paramedics who responded had experienced unit connected the job.

Of those, 24 per cent said they'd experienced it daily, and 41 per cent said it happened weekly. 

Ross said accent was besides a cardinal taxable that emerged: 67 per cent said they either seldom oregon ne'er felt adequately staffed connected shift, and 78 per cent felt drained oregon burned retired due to the fact that of accent astatine work.

Seventy-one per cent of respondents said they'd earnestly considered leaving their occupation successful the past year, and 63 per cent felt "not astatine all" oregon "not very" supported by management.

"It's clip for the metropolis to amusement immoderate initiative, perceive to the front-line workers and instrumentality enactment to hole these issues," Ross said.

"Paramedics are not getting the clip disconnected they request to retrieve from hard calls. They are facing increasing unit and they consciousness their enactment is misunderstood, undervalued and unsupported by management."

The national said the survey was sent to 287 of its astir 390 members, a quality it said is due to the fact that it doesn't person idiosyncratic interaction accusation for each its members.

CBC has requested remark from the metropolis and the province.

Crews 'physically and emotionally exhausted'

Ryan Woiden, a Winnipeg paramedic who besides serves arsenic president of MGEU Local 911, representing paramedics and dispatchers, said the level of unit paramedics spot connected the occupation has go "unbelievable."

"While radical slumber successful their beds, paramedics are retired there, and they're getting things swung astatine them, kicked, punched — it's each sorts of things going connected retired there," Woiden said astatine Wednesday's quality conference.

"When you telephone 911, you privation to cognize that idiosyncratic is going to beryllium there, and we privation to beryllium determination for those citizens. But the world is the strategy that we person close present is not supporting the radical that are responding, and it's not supporting the radical that are expecting america there. Our crews are physically and emotionally exhausted."

Woiden said telephone volumes are truthful precocious close now, there's often nary clip for paramedics to decompress earlier heading to the adjacent perchance traumatic event.  

"Imagine if you're trying to assistance idiosyncratic and you person a diligent connected your stretcher successful the infirmary — and past erstwhile you offload them into a furniture astatine the hospital, you locomotion retired to your motortruck and you recognize you've been connected [another] telephone for 4 oregon 5 minutes and you didn't adjacent cognize it," helium said. 

"When I cognize someone's been waiting for maine for 4 minutes, and it's a beingness oregon decease situation, that puts a batch of accent connected me, and that puts a batch of accent connected our paramedics — and we request that to change."

All that contributes to debased morale and much radical leaving the occupation — whether it's for aboriginal retirement, moving to constabulary oregon firefighting, oregon leaving the metropolis altogether, helium said. 

"I judge what we're looking for is for idiosyncratic to beryllium accountable to effort to hole this system," Woiden said, adding paramedics are calling connected enactment astatine the metropolis and provincial levels to "understand that we cannot beryllium immoderate much clear: we request help, and we request it from them today."

He said portion "people utilized to inquire the question, 'How galore much ambulances bash you need?'" immoderate solutions travel adjacent person to spell beyond that.

"If you've got a pat that's conscionable gushing water, and you're filling … cupful aft cupful aft cup, yet the question isn't, 'How galore much cups bash you need,' right?" Woiden said. 

"It's astir fixing the archetypal problem, and that's what we request to do."