Protesters hit the Parkway and contract talks stall as DC 33 strike continues

As Mayor Cherelle L. Parker prepared to take the podium Thursday atop the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, members of Philadelphia’s largest municipal union cursed her name in protest less than a mile away. In between the power and the people, workers contracted by the city set about preparing Eakins Oval for Philadelphia’s annual Fourth of July celebration.

“You know what Mayor Parker and this rat have in common?” an organizer at the protest shouted through a bullhorn while gesturing to an oversize inflatable rodent. “They’re both full of hot air.”

And so, too, was Philadelphia — albeit one with more of a pungent punch to it on the third day of an early-summer strike by members of District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The work stoppage — the union’s first major one in almost 40 years — has created something of a trash crisis ahead of the holiday, but there was to be no reconciliation Thursday. Union leaders, Parker said, declined to return to the negotiating table following a failed session that had started late Wednesday.

“I want to be clear, Philadelphia,” Parker said. “The City of Philadelphia cannot negotiate with itself.”

Union president Greg Boulware dismissed claims that DC 33 leadership walked away from the negotiating table overnight, telling reporters Thursday that his team “needs to sit and actually have time to be able to go through and revise our proposal” before returning to the bargaining table.

» READ MORE: The ‘Parker piles’ of trash take their toll as residents navigate pest control and dumpster feuds in the DC 33 strike

Those negotiations, however, had not gone far since the start of the strike at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. Parker’s last known offer was for a three-year deal with annual raises of 2.75%, 3%, and 3%, according to Boulware. The union, meanwhile, is seeking a minimum of 5% annual raises for its members on a four-year contract.

In all, the city’s offer would cost about $115 million over three years, Parker said Thursday — the first time she has disclosed the price tag of the proposed contract. Boulware referred to that offer as “re-shining the same turd” early Thursday, but hours later, Parker stood steadfastly by it. The deal, she said, was the best the city could present.

“I’m not perfect, you hear me,” Parker said in an impassioned speech Thursday afternoon. “But for anyone saying to you that your mayor is not providing a fair and fiscally [responsible] offer on the table for members of District Council 33 is just not right.”

Talks had not resumed by Thursday evening, and it was not clear when the next negotiation session would be. Meanwhile, the rest of the city has been left to sweat it out over the holiday weekend, with few concessions.

Nearly all Free Library branches, for example, remained closed, and its summer free lunch program has been paused, spokesperson Mark Graham confirmed to The Inquirer.

The Free Library is attempting to open some branches, but has struggled to get members of AFSCME District Council 47, which represents librarians, to be able to access those sites due to a number of issues, including concerns about crossing their coworkers’ picket lines.

Two Free Library of Philadelphia librarians joined Thursday’s picket at Eakins Oval to protest what they called a “disgusting, insulting, and dangerous” situation at their branches.

Both librarians — who declined to be named out of fear of retaliation — are members of DC 47, which is not on strike. Librarians are being encouraged to show up at work amid picket lines with police escorts as buffer.

“I don’t want to work in a building where the majority of the people I work with make half of what I do,” said a North Philly librarian who has worked at her branch for eight years.

Some staffers, however, were ordered back to work, including 31 DC 33 members in the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office who were told to return to their jobs after the fourth successful injunction request filed by the city since the strike’s start. Attorneys representing the union did not object.

In its lawsuit and injunction request Thursday morning, the city said the backlog in the examination and transportation of dead bodies could result in the office exceeding its storage capacity.

» READ MORE: Medical Examiner’s Office employees are ordered back to work after bodies piled up in storage during strike

Parker, meanwhile, passionately defended her leadership and administration amid the strike Thursday, again denying false claims that have circulated on social media and among municipal workers that she gave herself a 9% raise. Parker’s salary started in 2024 at the amount that former Mayor Jim Kenney’s ended in 2023 — $261,497 — after he received a roughly 9% increase in the months before he left office.

Parker’s salary rose by 3.1% to $269,708 over the last year.

She then turned the salary conversation back on DC 33, saying people should ask protesters who share the 9% claim: “Is it true that your [DC 33] leadership makes more than the mayor and she leads a city of 1.5 million people, plus it’s the sixth-largest city in the nation?”

“If we’re going to tell the truth, tell the truth,” she said.

» READ MORE: No, Mayor Parker didn’t give herself ‘a 9% raise’ — but she did dole out big raises to aides

Union financial disclosures for 2024, the most recent year available, show that former president Ernest Garrett earned $282,237 and former secretary-treasurer Francis Halbherr earned $328,928. Both salaries are paid out of union dues.

And Parker again defended the city’s current contract offer to DC 33, saying it was the most generous increase to its members’ wages — which average $46,000 per year — in decades. None of her recent predecessors, she said, had presented larger offers.

Which, while true, still appears to have the union questioning: Does “largest” mean “enough” in 2025?

Only time — and the heights to which Philadelphia’s mounting piles of trash grow amid the strike — will tell.

“They think our work is easy, and it’s not,” Jerome Ragby, 58, who has worked as a custodian at Philadelphia International Airport since 2023, said Thursday at Eakins Oval. “They probably get paid more than we do.”

Staff writers Nate File and Abraham Gutman contributed to this article.