Jason R. Latham - Sunbelt Digital Media

As it stands now, bargain shoppers won't be the only ones on the streets early the day after Thanksgiving, and the term "Black Friday" may have a more ominous meaning in Clark County.

The possibility of a strike by American Medical Response paramedics and EMTs worsened Thursday morning, with a union representative stating there is no movement on a new contract after the previous one expired October 31.

"EMTs and Paramedics are simply asking for AMR to sit down and negotiate a contract," said Amber Lopez Lasater, spokesperson for SEIU Local #1107.  "We're very disappointed to see that AMR continues to refuse to take this simple, immediate action to avoid a strike."

American Medical Response is accusing Local #1107 of using another union, IAEP Local #5000 to "serve as a bargaining representative" for AMR workers.  The company is now appealing to the National Labor Relations Board to resolve the dispute and put employees to a vote for the union they want to represent them.

"It would be really a chance for the entire work force to say who they want to represent them," said AMR General Manager John Wilson, "Right now we have individuals who have signed cards with SEIU and we have some individuals who have signed with IAEP and we have some individuals who choose not to be a part of any."

An emergency injunction has been filed with the NLRB, with a decision expected by Friday. 

American Medical Response has 361 paramedics and EMT's that are eligible to be part of the union.  Wilson says 147 are dues-paying members, and he fully expects some will refuse to strike on Black Friday.

"More than half of our work force is non-union, and they've committed to being here if the strike came down," Wilson says, "I also have a huge commitment from a number of union members that are saying they're coming to work on November 28."

Wilson blames the failure of negotiations on "a technicality" and says AMR won't go back to the bargaining table until it knows which union to deal with.  If the NLRB approves the request for an election, workers would vote by secret ballot, a process Wilson believes could be done with the next two weeks.

"We didn't ask for the IAEP to come into this; that was something that the SEIU decided to do.  Our employees didn't have a say in that and we have been fighting since October to try and get an election that would allow the employees to choose."

While AMR insists it has enough employees to stay in service during a strike, Las Vegas Fire & Rescue has offered to pick up the slack, despite the impact a strike would have on response time.  The department expects its workload to quadruple if crews are forced to cover more ground.

Wilson says he has also reached an agreement with Medic West, a company that operates ambulances in North Las Vegas.

"We are going to be here for this community the day after thanksgiving and for years to come."