Tensions — and piles of trash — are growing as a strike by the city’s largest labor union, which includes sanitation workers, teachers and airport employees, entered a third day on Thursday.
The American Federation of State, Council and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council 33 has been on strike since 12:01 a.m. on July 1. The city had been offering a deal that offered raises of 2.75%, 3% and 3% over three years, while DC has been insisting on an annual 5% raise for four years.
The city and union officials met on Wednesday until early Thursday morning, but made no progress toward ending the strike. DC33 president Greg Boulware told the Inquirer that the city had sweetened their offer with a 2% bonuses, but that he wanted lasting increases to workers’ salaries. The average salary for DC33 members is around $48,000, the union has said many times.
Mayor Cherelle Parker held a press conference Thursday afternoon on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she said that her proposal to negotiate today was rebuffed by the union.
“I want to be clear, Philadelphia, the city of Philadelphia cannot negotiate with itself,” Parker said. Boulware had said earlier there were no plans to resume negotiations Thursday, which is the last day before the July 4 holiday.
How much money are we talking?
To get a sense of the amount of money is being haggled over, Billy Penn pulled out its calculator and did some quick math. We multiplied 9,000 (the number of union members) by 46,000 (the reported average salary in dollars) and multiplied that by .01 to get a rough estimate of what each percentage point equals in these negotiations.
The answer? About $4 million. So if the two sides were to agree to, say, a 4% raise — the midpoint between their reported positions — it would cost the city about $4 million, excluding benefits and other factors. If the city totally rolled and agreed to the 5% across four years, that’s $16 million ($4 million times 4 years).
It’s not that simple, as WHYY’s Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza lays out here.
South Philly frustrations
For three days, Teresa Pea lugged her trash along the roughly 15-block walk from her home in Point Breeze to the dropoff location on 18th and Catharine streets. On Thursday, as trash continued to pile up and negotiations between the union and city appeared to be stalled, frustration had set in for Pea and other South Philly residents.
“I don’t know why it makes me so mad. I make good money, and I can’t imagine standing out here in the heat, collecting people’s trash for such a low amount,” said Pea, referencing the union estimate that its average worker makes about $46,000 per year. “[Mayor] Cherelle Parker should be ashamed.”
With no discussions between the city and DC 33 scheduled, Pea said her frustration has grown with the increasing likelihood that the upcoming Fourth of July weekend will be marked not just by fireworks, but excess trash.
“Where’s all the trash going to go on the Fourth of July? It’s an incredibly busy weekend around the entire city. And we have a lot of people from out of town here this time of year,” she said.
“It’s embarrassing, and it’s shocking.”
Other South Philly residents were more upset by their neighbors not taking the extra step to drop off their trash at designated dump sites and leaving it lying about.
“People still need to do their part,” said Josh Efflin, who lives just a block away from the Broad Street and Snyder Avenue dump site. “I don’t love the mayor, but we can’t blame everything on them.”
For longtime residents, the trash pileups were just another familiar part of city life.
“I was here for the ‘86 strike, and that went 22 days,” Lance Howard said. “I’m a Philly guy. It’s life in the big city, dude.”
Dumpster dislocation
Monumental Baptist Church is located at the intersection of Locust and 50th streets in West Philly, right by one of the dropoff locations. Rev. Dr. J. Wendell Mapson Jr., the minister there, said the church wasn’t informed ahead of time of the placement of the dumpster in the area.
He believes there would’ve been better locations with “less traffic and fewer homes” the city could’ve used, such as nearby school district property, he said.
Trash dropoff started off “not running smoothly at all” on Tuesday, but seemed to improve yesterday with more frequent pickups and more garbage in the dumpster, rather than surrounding areas, he added.
He is “sympathetic” to the workers’ fight for higher wages and thankful to the city for bargaining.
Courts get involved
On Tuesday, the first day of the strike, a judge sided with the city in ordering more than 200 911 dispatchers to return to work in order to avoid delays in emergency response times and public health.
That same court order also applied to some essential Philadelphia Water Department workers. Another preliminary injunction filed by the city also prohibits DC33 picketers from blocking or obstructing access to municipal buildings.
Sriking medical examiner’s office employees were also ordered by a Philadelphia judge to report for duty with the 3 p.m. shift on Thursday — the strike’s third day — after the city sought the order over delays in picking up the bodies of deceased residents.
A 6ABC report noted a sobering example of the problem was visible in Germantown when a 19-year-old man died after being shot at 5:47 a.m. but, many hours later, his body was still lying in the street.
Another court order obtained by the city prevents striking sanitation workers from “gathering in groups of more than eight, or standing within 10 feet of city property (which includes sanitation centers), or engaging in behavior deemed as intimidating or harassing.” This created tensions at one city sanitation center on Wednesday, where dozens of sanitation workers had a standoff with authorities.
DC33 president Greg Boulware characterized the city’s use of the courts to break the strike as bad-faith moves by the city. “Clearly the city doesn’t want to negotiate in good faith with us by doing tactics like this to make sure that they diminish any opportunity for us to have an effective strike on the side of this city,” he said.
The city could potentially file more injunctions over the course of the strike.
Trash
With sanitation workers on strike, there are currently no curbside trash or recycling collections. The city has created a list of temporary waste drop off sites for people to bring their trash – encouraging people to bring their waste to these locations on their normal, scheduled trash pickup date.
Despite this, many residents have expressed concerns about this system. Some dropoff locations are in unclear locations, and there has even been tension between law enforcement and union workers at various sites. Residents have also wondered whether using the drop-off sites is tantamount to crossing the picket line.
Many Philadelphians expressed concerns that without negotiations ahead of the weekend, massive amounts of Fourth of July trash could pile up.
Speaking on WHYY’s Studio 2 show at noon Thursday, Boulware was asked whether residents should be taking their trash to the dropoff locations.
“I would say it doesn’t help our cause at all to do so,” Boulware said. “Would I call a citizen a scab? Absolutely not. They are citizens. They’re tax payers. They’re simply trying to figure out what to do with their trash. I would tell those citizens to urge the administration and the Mayor’s office to get to the table with us, to come with a deal that’s actually workable for us. Because, thus far, we’ve not come to that place.”
What’s open and for how long?
Many city services have modified or ceased operations due to the strike – but some remain open or have alternative options.
Trash dropoff and pickup sites are open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., though there have been incidents where union members blocked access to dropoffs.
While 60 city pools were expected to open by the end of next week, only 26 are fully available now.
City recreation centers are open for reduced hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m., they’d normally stay open till 9 p.m.)
Summer camps will still operate normally, but evening programs are suspended. Permitted events in park spaces face limited maintenance, cleaning and gate access.
All Free Library of Philadelphia branches are closed during the duration of the strike.
This means that several cooling centers and the Free Library’s free summer lunch program for Philly youth are also currently not in operation.
Some healthcare services at City of Philadelphia Health Centers are temporarily unavailable or delayed. The city says services available will vary by day and location.
Prep for Welcome America
Mayor Cherelle Parker has said the city’s Wawa Welcome America Fourth of July festivities will go on as planned. The city and groups like Visit Philadelphia have maintained this stance as the strike continues.
Wawa’s Welcome America festival is the nation’s largest Independence Day celebration. Spread across 16 days, it features concerts, free museum days, parades and culminates on July 4 with festivities and fireworks.
Beyond this, other departments and services may continue to see impacts if the strike continues.
This story will be updated.
