Because the Philadelphia municipal staff strike enters its second week, so-called “Parker piles” – giant collections of rubbish that some residents blame on Mayor Cherelle Parker – proceed to construct up in neighborhoods throughout town.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Staff District Council 33 union on strike represents about 9,000 blue-collar staff within the metropolis, together with sanitation staff, 911 dispatchers, metropolis mechanics and water division workers.
The Dialog U.S. requested Francis Ryan, a professor of labor research at Rutgers College and writer of “AFSCME’s Philadelphia Story: Municipal Workers and Urban Power in Philadelphia in the Twentieth Century,” concerning the historical past of sanitation strikes in Philly and what makes this one distinctive.
Has something shocked you about this strike?
This strike marks the primary time within the historical past of labor relations between town of Philadelphia and AFSCME District Council 33 union the place social media is taking part in a major position in how the wrestle is unfolding.
The union is getting their facet of the story out on Instagram and different social media platforms, and residents are taking on or expressing sympathy with their trigger.
Some metropolis residents are referring to the rubbish buildup websites as ‘Parker piles.’
AP Picture/Tassanee Vejpongsa
How profitable are trash strikes in Philly or different US cities?
As I describe in my e-book, Philadelphia has an extended historical past of sanitation strikes that goes again to March 1937. At the moment, a quick work stoppage led to discussions between town administration and an early model of the present union.
When over 200 metropolis staff have been laid off in September 1938, metropolis staff referred to as a weeklong sanitation strike. Avenue battles raged in West Philadelphia when strikers blocked police-escorted trash wagons that have been aiming to gather trash with staff employed to exchange the strikers.
Philadelphia residents, lots of whom have been union members who labored in textile, metal, meals and different industries, rallied behind the strikers. The strikers’ calls for have been met, and a brand new union, AFSCME, was formally acknowledged by town.
This strike was a significant occasion as a result of it confirmed how damaging a rubbish strike may very well be. The truth that strikers have been keen to battle within the streets to cease trash providers confirmed that such occasions had the potential for violence, to not point out the well being considerations from having tons of trash on the streets.
There was one other two-week trash strike in Philadelphia in 1944, however there wouldn’t be one other for greater than 20 years.
Nevertheless, a rising variety of sanitation strikes popped up across the nation within the Nineteen Sixties, essentially the most notorious being the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike.
Black sanitation staff peacefully march sporting placards studying ‘I Am A Man’ throughout the 1968 sanitation strike in Memphis, Tenn.
Bettmann through Getty Photographs
In Memphis, Tennessee, a majority African American sanitation workforce demanded larger wages, fundamental security procedures and recognition of their union. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. rallied to help the Memphis staff and their households as a part of his Poor Peoples’ Marketing campaign, which sought to prepare working individuals from throughout the nation into a brand new coalition to demand full financial and political rights.
On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated. His loss of life put strain on Memphis officers to settle the strike, and on April 16 the the strikers secured their calls for.
By the Eighties, such labor actions have been changing into fewer. In 1986, Philadelphia witnessed a three-week sanitation strike that ended with the union gaining a few of its wage calls for, however dropping on key areas associated to well being care advantages.
Staff start eradicating mounds of trash after returning to work after an 18-day strike in Philadelphia in July 1986.
Bettmann through Getty Photographs
How do wages and advantages for DC33 staff examine to different US cities?
District Council 33 President Greg Boulware has mentioned that the union’s members make a mean wage of US$46,000 per yr. In line with MIT’s Dwelling Wage Calculator, that’s $2,000 lower than what a single grownup with no youngsters must fairly help themselves dwelling in Philadelphia.
Sanitation staff who acquire curbside trash earn a wage of $42,500 to $46,200, or $18-$20 an hour. NBC Philadelphia reported that these wages are the bottom of any of the key cities they checked out. Hourly wages within the different cities they checked out ranged from $21 an hour in Dallas to $25-$30 an hour in Chicago.
In contrast to different eras, the truth that social media makes public these private narratives and views – like from former sanitation employee Terrill Haigler, aka “Ya Fav Trashman” – is shaping the best way many voters reply to those disruptions. I see a degree of help for the strikers that I imagine is unprecedented going again so far as 1938.
One in every of dozens of official trash drop-off websites all through town whereas sanitation staff are on strike.
AP Picture/Matt Slocum
What do you suppose is behind this help?
The pandemic made individuals extra conscious of the position of important staff in society. If the women and men who do these jobs can’t afford their fundamental wants, one thing isn’t proper. This will likely clarify why so many individuals are seeing issues from the angle of hanging staff.
On the similar time, cash is being minimize from necessary providers on the federal, state and native ranges. The proposed gutting of town’s mass transit system by state lawmakers is a living proof. Social media permits individuals to make these broader connections and begin conversations.
If the strike continues for much longer, I believe it’s going to acquire extra nationwide and worldwide consideration, and produce discussions about how staff ought to be handled to the forefront.
Trash piles up at a group web site on July 3, 2025.
AP Picture/Matt Slocum
