Fw: EMSNEWS Digest - 11 Sep 2000 to 12 Sep 2000 (#2000-176)

[Guest guest]

Chicago - Female paramedic fights for benefits

>

> http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/fire12.html

>

> Female paramedic fights for benefits

>

> September 12, 2000

>

> BY FRAN SPIELMAN CITY HALL REPORTER

>

>

>

>

>

> A female paramedic who's one of 13 cancer victims in the last decade at a

> North Side firehouse is gearing up for a renewed battle against the

Chicago

> firefighters pension fund after being denied the disability benefits

awarded

> to her male colleagues.

>

> The Firemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago denied Joanne Pelak's

> request, even though it has granted the disability designation without

> question to dozens of male firefighters and paramedics who have been

> diagnosed with cancer.

>

> Circuit Court Judge Madden has ordered the board to reconsider the

case

> at a meeting next week. At stake is $4,000 a month for a single mother now

> trying to make ends meet on $475 a month.

>

> " It's discrimination. They've given it to men with prostate cancer, but

I'm

> the first woman to apply, " said Pelak, the first registered nurse to serve

> on an ambulance in Illinois and one of three women to break the paramedic

> gender barrier in Chicago.

>

> " I'm a widow with two teenaged daughters. I lost my house. I had to sell

it.

> Now, I have no money left from that. I'm living with my mom. These

benefits

> are owed to me. "

>

> Surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes left Pelak unable to lift more

than

> 10 lbs. with her right arm, a prerequisite for all paramedics, according

to

> O. Holland, the former Local 2 president now serving as an attorney

> for Pelak.

>

> " They're trying to carve out a pension board exception for females with

> breast cancer, " Holland said.

>

> " It's almost neanderthal that the board can sit there and say that any

male

> can get any cancer and it's automatically considered job-related. He

doesn't

> even have to show up for a hearing. But, a woman with the most common form

> of cancer that afflicts females--one of every eight--has to do the

> impossible and prove where and how she got it. "

>

> Larry Flood, an attorney representing the pension board, refused to

comment

> on Pelak's precedent-setting case.

>

> The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that the Chicago Fire Fighters

> Union is demanding the immediate closing of Engine No. 70, 1545 W.

Rosemont,

> saying 13 firefighters and paramedics who worked there got cancer over the

> last 10 years and five of them died.

>

> Pelak is one of the victims. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998

> after being detailed to Engine No. 70 " 30 to 50 " times a year over a

> five-year period.

>

> After exhausting her yearlong medical leave, Pelak applied to the pension

> fund for disability status. Last fall, the board voted 5-2 to deny her

that

> status, apparently ignoring a 1984 state law that included cancer in the

> list of illnesses and medical conditions presumed to be job-related when

the

> victim has been on the job for more than 10 years.

>

> Mike Cohen served as chief lobbyist for Local 2 when state pension law was

> changed to make cancer victims eligible for occupational disease benefits.

> >From 1984 to 1989, Cohen served as a pension board trustee.

>

> " We never denied someone that had an occupational disease of heart, lung

or

> cancer. We never questioned where they got it if they had the time of

> service, " he said.

>

> In Pelak's case, " that precedent has been broken, " Cohen said.

>

> Pelak exercised her right to administrative review before Madden. The

judge

> questioned the board's decision, and ordered the pension board to hear the

> matter again. Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 has asked its members to

> show up in force in support of Pelak's case.

>

> Meanwhile, eight firefighters assigned to Engine No. 70 have requested

> transfers out of the " sick " firehouse. And the Illinois Department of

Labor

> sent a letter to City Hall and Local 2 on Monday asking to oversee a city

> investigation aimed at determining whether the firehouse should be closed.

>

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> End of EMSNEWS Digest - 11 Sep 2000 to 12 Sep 2000 (#2000-176)

> **************************************************************