NYC is laying off 400 emergency medical workers as part of the city's COVID-19 budget cuts, union says

• New York City is preparing to fire 400 emergency medical workers as part of budget cuts, NBC News reported, citing the city's emergency-services union.
• The layoffs are part of budget cuts brought on by the economic impact of the city's finances during the coronavirus pandemic.
• Union president Oren Barzilay told NBC in a Wednesday statement: "Yesterday, we were praised as heroes, essential workers saving lives. Today, the city government treats us like zeros."
• Mayor Bill de Blasio previously said the city had already lost $9 billion in revenue between March and June, and that cuts were inevitable to all public agencies.

New York City is laying off 400 emergency medical workers as part of budget cuts prompted by the COVID-19 economic downturn, according to a union.

"Even with the threat of a second wave of COVID-19 looming and two recent outbreaks in Brooklyn, Bill de Blasio and his team at City Hall wants to balance the city's budget on our backs," Oren Barzilay, president of FDNY EMS Local 2507, the city's emergency medical services union, told NBC News in a statement on Wednesday.

Barzilay said Mayor de Blasio planned to eliminate "some 400 emergency medical responder positions."

"Yesterday, we were praised as heroes, essential workers saving lives. Today, the city government treats us like zeros," he said.

In response, Bill Neidhardt, a City Hall spokesperson, told NBC News that the city "does not want these layoffs to happen, but this is the hole we are in without a stimulus or borrowing authority."

"Our EMTs and firefighters save lives every day and we are working with their unions to find personnel savings to avoid layoffs, but unfortunately all agencies will face layoffs," the spokesperson said.

"Without a stimulus or borrowing authority, EMTs and firefighters will have to find personnel savings."

The layoffs have cast a long shadow over plans for a huge ticker-tape parade to honor healthcare workers and first responders when the pandemic ends.

De Blasio had announced in April that the parade "will be the greatest of all the parades because this one will speak to the rebirth of New York City."

But he is facing an uphill battle to win the support of the city's public-services employees after he announced sweeping cuts on June 30.

He said the city had lost $9 billion in tax revenue from March to June alone due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He is also considering cutting as many as 22,000 jobs, Bloomberg reported in June.

In July, the New York City Council also voted to reduce the New York Police Department's budget by $1 billion, and reallocate the money to other departments like youth and community services.

Some critics said money should not be taken from the police at a time of rising crime, while others said the cuts were not enough to make real changes.

Barzilay, the union president, attacked de Blasio directly in his comments to NBC News.

"We did our job, even as an unprepared city government failed to provide these brave medical first responders and fire inspectors with adequate safety equipment," he said.

"A person having a heart attack or a stroke or the bleeding victim of a stabbing or gunshot wound cannot afford an extra five to seven minutes of delay that will likely occur if the mayor's master layoff plan is carried out."

New York City was one of the earliest- and worst-hit places during the early months of the US coronavirus outbreak. Psychiatrists and psychologists previously told Business Insider that emergency medical staff are at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder because of the pandemic.