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“The work stoppage involving District Council 33 and the City of Philadelphia is OVER,” Mayor Cherelle Parker announced on social media early Wednesday morning.
A marathon negotiation session Tuesday between the city and its blue collar workers’ union responsible for trash pick-up and other duties around the city has resulted in a tentative contract agreement.
DC33 President Greg Boulware was exhausted after the 12-hour negotiation session and said they did what they had to do.
“There’s a lot of factors involved in what was going on and we ultimately did what we thought was in the best interest of all of our membership,” Boulware said.
The deal appears to be a complete win for the city because it got just about everything Parker wanted with a 3% raise in each of the three years of the deal. It’s a deal the Parker administration is calling “historic.”
When adding in the 5% increase the city agreed to last year to extend DC33’s contract by one year, the increase for the union over Parker’s four-year term will total 14%. That’s still well below the 32% total pay increase the union was fighting for.
“Your union stood up and fought for you and we did the best we can with the circumstances we had in front of us,” Boulware said.
Those circumstances include workers expecting to miss a paycheck Thursday.
Union officials have told workers to return to the job pending a ratification vote.
Nine thousand members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33 went on strike July 1. The strike has resulted in massive piles of trash piling up on city streets and around trash drop-off sites designated by the city.
The strike also resulted in changes to the city’s annual Fourth of July concert with headliner LL Cool J and city native Jazmine Sullivan both dropping out.