Slashed tires, open fire hydrants, picket line dust-ups: Tensions rise on the first day of Philly’s city worker strike

A striking city worker was arrested Tuesday morning for allegedly slashing a Philadelphia Water Department truck’s tires, causing about $3,000 in damage, according to a police source.

A person was recorded opening fire hydrants on the block of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s home in what the mayor said may have been an attempt to hinder city water service.

Picketers blocked police officers from entering a trash yard to investigate reports of vandalism.

And throughout Tuesday, there were minor confrontations on picket lines across the city, captured on video and spread across social media. None of the publicly reported incidents appeared to involve attempts to injure people.

The incidents highlighted the tensions of the first day of Philadelphia’s first major city workers strike since 1986, with union members attempting to grind the city to a halt in a bid for better wages while the Parker administration took emergency measures to preserve municipal services.

Residential trash pickup has stopped entirely, some city pools are closed, recreation center hours have been limited, and the 911 call center is operating but strained, officials said. The city’s drinking water remains safe, Managing Director Adam K. Thiel said.

» READ MORE: On strike: DC 33 members share stories of ‘poverty wages’ and struggle, asking people not to cross picket lines

The mayor’s administration notched a trio of legal victories Tuesday, including two court orders requiring certain Philadelphia Water Department and 911 call center employees to return to work to ensure public health and safety. The city also won a court order preventing picketers from restricting access to some city facilities.

» READ MORE: Judge orders 911 dispatch workers to return to work amid strike

Greg Boulware, who represents the more than 9,000 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33, called for the work stoppage to begin at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, when the union’s last contract expired.

He is locked in a standoff with Parker over the size of pay raises he is trying to secure for his members, who are the lowest-paid city employees and who work in blue-collar jobs across city government, including trash collectors, street pavers, mechanics, and 911 operators.

“We are ready, willing, and able to resume negotiations with the union,” Parker said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon at one of the city’s trash drop-off sites in West Philadelphia. “They walked away from the negotiating table.”

Boulware did not respond to several interview requests.

On paper, the two sides do not appear to be far apart. Parker’s last offer late Monday night would have given DC 33 members a three-year contract with annual raises of 2.75%, 3%, and 3%. Boulware wants 5% raises each year.

For an average DC 33 member who makes roughly $46,000 per year, Parker’s offer would have meant a salary just over $50,140 after three years. Boulware’s proposal would mean $53,250, or about $60 more a week.

But Boulware and Parker gave no indication Tuesday that a compromise was in the offing as tensions rose while picketers withstood blazing temperatures and occasional downpours.

“The City of Philadelphia can’t get to the negotiating table and sit there and negotiate with ourselves,” Parker said. “We have to have District Council 33 at the table.”

When the mayor left her Northwest Philadelphia home Tuesday morning, the first signs she saw of the strike were fire hydrants spewing water into the air.

“I remember looking, saying, ‘Wow, like, what’s the fire hydrant on both sides of the street doing on?’” Parker said. “I was then notified that we had collected footage and video of a car pulling over the top of the block, person jumping out, turning on the fire hydrant.”

Quickly opening hydrants causes sudden changes in water pressure that can damage pipes. Parker said she was told “that was occurring in different neighborhoods across the city, and that the strategy behind that, which is reckless, is to hope that the city of Philadelphia’s water pressure … is lower.”

Parker spokesperson Joe Grace said the fire department recorded at least 25 hydrants that were turned on overnight and left running, including a cluster in the Northwest.

They were some of the numerous apparent attempts to hinder city services and infrastructure, officials said at the news conference.

Shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday, police responded to a facility near Ford Road and Chamounix Drive in Fairmount Park and found a Philadelphia Gas Works tractor with its tires slashed, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the case.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, said officers arrested a member of DC 33 who they believe was responsible for the vandalism — and who allegedly cut his finger in the process of slicing the tires, valued at about $3,000.

The man’s name was not immediately available, but he remained in custody Tuesday afternoon after police recommended he face charges including vandalism, according to the source. The district attorney’s office declined to comment.

A short time later, around 9:15 a.m., police responded to a sanitation facility at Umbria Street and Domino Lane in Upper Roxborough after videos surfaced online showing about a dozen city trash trucks with slashed or deflated tires. When officers arrived, a group of striking workers blocked the entrance to the facility and said everything was fine, the source said. To avoid escalation, the officers retreated and did not enter the facility, the source said, and officials have not been able to confirm the alleged damage.

Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel vowed to investigate every incident of vandalism or obstruction and urged city residents and workers to remain respectful to one another and to city property.

“We will respect you. We do respect you,” he said to DC 33 workers. “But we cannot respect when you get outside of the bounds and engage in activity that is destructive or harms others.”

Most picket lines have been respectful, said Carlton Williams, director of the Philadelphia Office of Clean and Green Initiatives. Others, however, have seen uglier interactions, he said.

“We’ve had some incidents where residents were disrespected, where trash was actually thrown at them, and we cannot tolerate that,” he said. “Any employee that is found in that situation will be held accountable. We are not playing with that.”

The purpose of a strike is, of course, to cripple an employer’s ability to function until it comes to the table with a better offer. That strategy, however, can have complicated outcomes when the employer is the City of Philadelphia, responsible for providing safe water, trash collection, and public safety for a city of 1.6 million people who cannot control the strikers’ wages.

For many DC 33 members, who for years have said their wages do not allow them to live a good life in the city, going on strike was the only way to effect significant change.

“You can’t save with this type of salary,” said Taylor Thompson, a city employee who brought her 8-month-old daughter, Reign, in a stroller to a picket line at City Hall. “You can’t survive.”

Thompson said she has been struggling to find affordable housing, even with her 311 salary and paychecks from a second job. Parker, she said, does not fully understand how much some city employees are struggling to get by.

“It’s not feasible,” she said.

For Eugene Heath, a teacher, the strike is a test of the mayor’s compassion for Philadelphians struggling to make ends meet.

“They should be able to live, and take care of their families, and not have to live paycheck to paycheck,” Heath said.

Heath believes many Philadelphians had begun taking public-sector city workers for granted before the strike, from those who clear the streets of trash to those who keep recreation centers open.

“How many people you know wanna go once a week to take out their own trash?” he said.

Staff writers Dylan Purcell, Jadon George, Fallon Roth, Nate File, Tommy Rowan, Abraham Gutman, Ximena Conde, and Joe Yerardi contributed to this article.