On strike: DC 33 members share stories of ‘poverty wages’ and struggle, asking people not to cross picket lines
Union members walking picket lines talked about low wages and fair treatment while residents tried to figure out what to do with their garbage.
The largest and lowest-paid of Philadelphia’s four municipal unions fanned out across the city Tuesday, forming picket lines at City Hall, water treatment plants, sanitation centers, and city-operated healthcare facilities.
The more than 9,000 members of District Council 33, part of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, went on strike shortly after midnight, flexing their muscle in a way the union hadn’t in 40 years, calling attention to the high-stress work they do for an average salary of $46,000. The union has said the average salary makes many members eligible for public assistance.
The data points were supported by anecdotal stories at picket lines throughout the city on the first day of the strike.
Saida Byrd, a 37-year-old 311 employee picketing at City Hall, said “living paycheck to paycheck” does not adequately describe how financially stretched she is, even with a second job.
“I’m living overdraft to overdraft,” she said.
At a picket line in Port Richmond’s Northeast Water Pollution Control Plant, Philadelphia Water Department employee Stacy Needle-Singleton, 53, said she has experienced firsthand how her pay doesn’t go as far as her mother’s and stepfather’s did.
“Over the past 20 years, we went from blue-collar workers to poverty-level workers,” she said.
Workers described saving money as a near impossibility and retirement as feeling out of reach, with some considering leaving the public sector altogether.
Police dispatchers, sanitation workers, and water treatment plant operators described mentally and physically taxing work, which they felt went unappreciated by the city despite how essential and widespread their footprint is.
“Without us, the city doesn’t work,” said Parkway Central Library municipal guard Dhafir Gerald, 48, picketing in front of the building with DC 33 branch custodians. The Free Library closed all but one of its branches by midday.
At $46,000 a year, Gerald said, he is doing more than the typical security guard, taking on property management tasks and handling visitors experiencing mental health problems.
“The city has the money to pay us,” he said. “We are the backbone of the city.”
As the day progressed, more services went offline, including lab work, mammographies, and X-rays at eight city-run health centers. Health department spokesperson James Garrow said services at the health centers will be dependent on staffing levels. Patients with forthcoming appointments at the health centers will be notified if their appointments are canceled or changed from in-person to virtual.
The centers are also not able to answer phones until the end of the strike, the city said.
At Philadelphia International Airport, a recycling can next to Terminal B’s security line overflowed with plastic bottles that couldn’t make it through the checkpoint.
In Nicetown, Tuesday’s scheduled trash pickup came and went with bags of garbage stewing in the piping sun. Some residents started ridding themselves of the stench by placing bags at Nicetown Park, according to nearby construction workers.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker asked residents Monday to refrain from placing bags on the curb and instead take them to six sanitation centers running on extended hours or to one of 61 additional dumpsters serving as garbage drop-off sites. The union considers using those sites as crossing the picket line, and they rubbed some residents the wrong way.
In Nicetown, postal worker Tempest Bolton said the drop-off sites underscored the city’s irresponsibility in not striking a deal.
“Who’s the city paying to pick that up?” Bolton said. “We’re coming up on Fourth of July weekend. And they’re going to do [DC 33 workers] like that.”
At Port Richmond’s Citizen Convenience Center for Recycling and Trash, union members said few people had tried to cross the picket line in the early hours of the day, with most turning around and a couple of bags being left on the sidewalk.
At Strawberry Mansion’s convenience center, however, DC 33 members broke into an argument with a sanitation manager who tried to open the facility to so-called work-study employees so they could take over operations, according to NBC10.
One former DC 33 member, who said he participated in the union’s 20-day 1986 stoppage, expressed surprise the members moved to strike. He said he doubts they will get the raises they are seeking from Parker.
The Parker administration started by proposing a four-year deal with 2% annual raises. By Monday night, Parker offered a three-year deal with raises of 2.75%, 3%, and 3% — amounting to 13%, more than any other mayor has offered in 30 years, Parker said. The city also offered to add an extra step to the union’s pay scale that would benefit longtime employees.
DC 33 president Greg Boulware countered Monday night with a final offer of 5% annual pay increases before walking away.
Still, public sentiment seemed to be on the side of DC 33. Several members of Philadelphia City Council issued statements of varying support for workers while hoping for a swift resolution, including Nicolas O’Rourke and Kendra Brooks of the Working Families Party; progressive Democrats Jamie Gauthier and Rue Landau; and Democrats Cindy Bass, Isaiah Thomas, Jeffery “Jay” Young, Mark Squilla, and Jim Harrity.
“You can’t build a just city by breaking the backs of the people who clean it, pave it, and keep it running,” said O’Rourke, adding workers should be able to “afford life’s essentials after 40 or more hours on the job, week after week.”
Local labor unions offered similar statements of support, including Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO, which encompasses more than 100 labor unions locally; IBEW Local 614, which represents Peco workers and others; AFGE District 3, which represents federal workers; and Teamsters. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, the school district’s largest union, with 14,000 teachers, nurses, secretaries, counselors, and other workers, encouraged its members to show up at the picket lines in solidarity with DC 33.
Residents in Logan Square and Center City also seemed understanding of the strike, despite the potential inconvenience, such as reduced recreation center hours and no garbage pickup.
“I definitively support what they’re doing. It’s a tough job and they need to get enough income to survive,” said James Taylor, 46.
Workers’ stories resonated among passersby in Port Richmond. At the Water Pollution Control Plant, one driver raised his fist, telling the group to “hold tough!”
“Family court is next,” said the driver.
A PWD employee replied: “We’re living off 2009 wages. It’s 2025!”
Staff writers Sean Collins Walsh, Fallon Roth, Ariana Perez-Castells, Aubrey Whelan, and Kristen A. Graham contributed to this article.