Philadelphia municipal workers agree to end strike after coming to labor agreement with city

By Joe Brandt, Brandon Goldner

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    PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — Members of AFSCME District Council 33, Philadelphia’s largest municipal union, came to a tentative new contract agreement with the city on Wednesday, ending a labor strike that began at midnight last Tuesday.

The union represents workers across multiple city departments, from police dispatchers and crossing guards to maintenance workers at Philadelphia International Airport, city sanitation workers who collect weekly trash pickups and many more.

In a statement, Mayor Cherelle Parker said the new deal is 3 years and, when finished, will total 14% in raises for the union’s members during her first term. The union was previously given a 5% raise in her first year as mayor, so this new deal likely offers about 9% in raises spread out over the three years.

The exact breakdown of the deal wasn’t immediately available Wednesday morning. DC 33 President Greg Boulware said a statement would be provided later in the morning.

“There’s a deal that’s been reached, unfortunately,” Boulware said. “I’m not happy or satisfied with the outcome of things.”

Workers are headed back to work Wednesday or “as soon as they can get to work,” Boulware said.

Is the Philadelphia strike over?

This is a tentative end to the strike. While workers have been told to head back to work, the contract worked out Wednesday morning still needs to be ratified by DC 33’s members.

“We’ll have much more to say about this historic deal tomorrow at City Hall,” Parker said in a statement shared to social media. “We’re valuing our workforce and we’re safeguarding our city’s hard-earned fiscal stability at the same time. The strike is over!”

News of the deal broke around 4 a.m., about 14 hours after both sides restarted negotiations at the Community College of Philadelphia’s West Philly campus at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Residents react to news of tentative agreement

Residents dumping off trash at one of the city’s 63 temporary drop-off sites in Fairmount expressed both excitement and skepticism once they found out the strike was over.

“That’s great news,” Jerry Pinero said. “I was worried that this would go on for like weeks and weeks and weeks, and it would just create a problem for the city.”

Kristin Coffan added, “Well, I’ll believe it when the trash leaves, and everybody [is] able to take the trash to curbside again. But I’m on the side of the workers. Like, whatever they want, give them what they want.”

Chutima Barrios has been concerned about sanitary conditions around the temporary drop-off sites.

“It’s horrible,” Barrios said. “I mean, I feel bad for neighbors around here.”

Edward Harris dropped off trash at a drop-off site for the first time since the strike began.

“We were stashing the trash in the house, yeah, because we didn’t want to support throwing it here,” Harris said. “This is our first day bringing it here, and to find out that the strike is ending is a good thing.”

Why did DC 33 go on strike?

DC 33 went on strike after negotiations with Parker’s administration on a new contract broke down, with the union initially requesting 8% pay increases each year of a four-year deal, a 32% total increase. Parker and the city were offering 7% over three years, averaging out to 2.33% a year.

Parker had pointed out that the union received a 5% increase for the 2025 fiscal year after negotiations during her first year as mayor. Prior to the strike, she posted a video on social media saying she was prepared to increase union wages in her first term more than several other previous mayors.

“We need you, we need you, members of District Council 33,” Parker said during a news conference.

Before the strike, DC 33 leadership had said the city’s wage increase wasn’t coming close to the wage increases the union sought. Parker had called her offer historic and urged members to accept.

As the week went on, talks stopped and started multiple times without coming to an agreement. Judges granted multiple city requests for court orders sending workers in some critical services, like the medical examiner’s office, the Philadelphia Water Department and police dispatch, back to work.

The strike drew even more attention when, on the eve of the July 4 Wawa Welcome America concert on the Ben Franklin Parkway, headliner LL Cool J announced he was “not going to cross a picket line and perform for money while people are hurting,” and pulled out of the show. News that fellow headliner Jazmine Sullivan followed suit broke on the day of the show.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Ross DiMattei contributed to this report.

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