{"id":29126,"date":"2025-07-01T06:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T06:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/29126\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T06:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T06:12:10","slug":"philly-leaders-prepare-ahead-of-city-worker-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/29126\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly leaders prepare ahead of city worker strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s largest blue-collar union could strike Tuesday, potentially disrupting essential city services like trash collection. However, city officials say they have a contingency plan ready.\n<\/p>\n

On Monday, AFSCME District Council 33<\/a> walked out of contract talks, saying the city\u2019s offer was insufficient to justify continued negotiations<\/a>. Disagreements appear to be over wages and work rules, with the city offering 7% over three years and the union seeking nearly 20% over the same period.
\n\"GregAFSCME District Council 33 President Greg Boulware held up a list of pay raises members of Mayor Cherelle Parker\u2019s administration received during her first term so far, including herself receiving a 9% pay increase. (Cory Sharber\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

During a rally at City Hall, Union President Greg Boulware criticized the actions of city leaders, specifically Mayor Cherelle Parker, holding up a list of various pay increases implemented throughout her administration.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cThe workers who provide all the comforts for people don\u2019t have any comforts of their own,\u201d Boulware said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got people that work and repair the water mains and can\u2019t afford their water bill. We\u2019ve got people that repair the runways at the airport and can\u2019t afford a plane ticket.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The union represents 9,000 city employees<\/a>, ranging from sanitation workers, city maintenance staff, 911 dispatchers and school crossing guards. If an agreement isn\u2019t reached, it would be the first time the union has walked in almost 40 years, when a 20-day strike resulted in trash piling up on city streets.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are prepared to stay at the table to achieve a contract that honors our employees while safeguarding the city\u2019s financial stability for all Philadelphians,\u201d Mayor Cherelle Parker said Monday.\n<\/p>\n

Boulware said a new contract would be \u201ca victory for Philadelphia.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to continue the groundwork to move forward and that\u2019s where we are,\u201d Boulware said. \u201cWe\u2019re taking a step forward, not backwards. We can\u2019t go backwards. We can\u2019t afford to go backwards. We don\u2019t want to go on strike, we\u2019ve got to go on strike.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

911 will remain operational, but prepare for slower pick-up times<\/p>\n

City leaders said they are prepared for the potential work stoppage. Emergency 911 call centers will remain operational, according to Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, with officers being moved to handle complaint calls. However, he warned residents of longer-than-average pick-up times.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we do expect is some wait times for 911 due to some of the shortages. Do not hang up,\u201d Bethel said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,24962,24963,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-29126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dc33","10":"tag-labor-unions","11":"tag-pa","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114776502834649313","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}