Agreed. I worked for a private ambulance company as an EMT and paramedic. We were "represented" by the Teamsters.

Any grievance? Usually resulted in us having to request a steward/rep from multiple counties away, who knew nothing about EMS and had our contract for reference. You would know more about what the issue was or why it was inappropriate that the union rep.

You'd usually have to "pre-game" and explain why a certain thing was appropriate or inappropriate because they were used to representing truck drivers with disputes about haulage, hours, etc., and had no idea about emergency medicine, or DOT provisions for emergency vehicles.

We eventually decertified (or rather, left the union).