Thousands of city workers are on strike in Philadelphia but a judge orders some back to work
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Negotiations were expected to resume Wednesday afternoon as a strike being staged by nearly 10,000 city workers in Philadelphia entered its second day. A judge meanwhile ordered some emergency service dispatchers and essential water department employees back to work.
“We are still very, very far apart. All this, it’s not all about money, but it’s largely about money, but there are a lot of work rule situations that we still have not worked through,” Greg Boulware, District 33 president, said Wednesday morning outside a designated trash drop-off site along the Delaware River.
The union represents many of the city’s blue-collar workers, from trash collectors to clerks to security guards. A judge has meanwhile ordered some emergency service dispatchers and essential water department employees back to work for health and safety reasons. Police and firefighters are not on strike.
The city has suspended residential trash collection, closed some city pools and libraries and shortened recreation center hours. However, Mayor Cherelle Parker, a Democrat, has vowed to keep the city running and not disturb the Fourth of July celebrations already under way in the nation’s birthplace.
A trickle of people arriving Wednesday morning at a designated trash drop-off site found themselves in the center of the labor dispute, as they encountered a few dozen striking workers lining the gates. Some turned around, while others – sometimes guided by police – drove through an open gate to deposit bags in an idle trash truck.
“I really didn’t want to pass the picket line,” said Steven Connell, 65, who was dropping off trash for himself and an elderly neighbor. He had expected a clear path and many more receptacles.
“We’re kind of conflicted,” Connell said. “I didn’t think it would be like this.”
The city has offered a three-year contract with annual raises of about 3%, which the union said amounts to little more than $1,000 after taxes for members making $46,000 a year on average, Boulware said. The union also wants some flexibility on the city residency requirement.
District Council 33 is the largest of four major unions representing city workers.
Parker has said the city has “put its best offer on the table.” She stressed that the effective 13% pay hike over her four-year term — including last year’s 5% bump – along with a fifth step on the pay scale would be the best contract the union has seen in decades.
“The proposal that they’re offering just does not meet the needs of our members to live inside this city,” Boulware said Wednesday. “It’s very little money for anybody.”
Common Pleas Court Judge Sierra Thomas-Street granted the city an injunction Tuesday ordering 237 out of 325 workers at the city’s 911 call center back to work because their absence creates a “clear and present danger.” The order does not prevent those workers — 32 fire dispatchers, five supervisors and 200 police dispatchers — from participating in the strike during off-duty hours.
The judge also ordered some water department workers back to the job because they’re essential to ensuring fresh, clean drinking water.
In November, the city transit system averted a strike when the parties agreed to a one-year contract with 5% raises.
A District Council 33 trash strike in the summer of 1986 left the city without trash pickup for three weeks, leading trash to pile up on streets, alleyways and drop-off sites. Connell lived through it and fears a repeat.
“It’s summertime, it’s 150 degrees, it’s going to get ugly” if it goes that long, he said.
“They had mounds of trash up around American and Allegheny (streets),” he said. “You could smell it for blocks.”
Philadelphia is not the only area dealing with a strike. Trash also piled up across more than a dozen Massachusetts towns Tuesday after 400 waste collection workers went on strike ahead of the July 4 holiday, according to news reports.
The contract with waste removal company Republic Services and Teamsters Local 25 union expired on Monday night. The union said workers are pushing for better wages, benefits, working conditions and paid time off.
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Associated Press journalist Leah Willingham in Boston contributed to this report.