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Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker is trying to end the municipal worker union strike before the Fourth of July holiday using several strategies — including a direct appeal to the rank and file while simultaneously forcing more union members back to work by court order.
As the last time union workers with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33 have been paid stretches past one week, there’s mounting pressure on the personal finances of especially low-wage employees – the median pay of which is about $46,000 in Philadelphia.
But there’s plenty of work to do as the city is overwhelmed with growing mountains of trash.
A federal holiday can be a particularly lucrative day for workers, since union members can earn double time if they leave the picket line and return to the job, Parker said.
“We can negotiate and get this deal done tonight. Our DC33 workers [can] earn double time tomorrow. I want us back together,” Parker said, standing on top of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps overlooking the Ben Franklin Parkway.
Parker claims she can improve workers’ lives without increasing their pay to the exact percentage raise union leadership wants.
Members of DC33 picketed outside the Sanitation Convenience Center on Richmond Street in Philadelphia on day three of a municipal worker strike, July 3, 2025. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
The mayor says she can’t offer more money than 13% over her four-year term – that figure includes the 5% increase during the one-year extension between June 2024 and June 2025 – because she won’t have enough for the other unions in the budget.
The union contract itself is technically three years, but there was a one-year extension when it expired last year. Parker’s three-year deal would cost $115 million from the city budget as part of the five-year plan. That money would come out of the $550 million for the labor negotiations reserve in this year’s budget recently approved by City Council.
Parker says she’s not willing to budge on the stickiest point: how much workers get paid per hour.
The union wants 5% a year for the next three years, which would be a 20% wage increase over the mayor’s four-year term.
“I won’t make any politically expedient decisions. You can threaten me with not supporting me if I decide to run for reelection. You can call me a one-term mayor,” she said. “But I’ll tell you what I will not do. I will not put the fiscal stability of the city of Philadelphia in jeopardy for no one. If that means I’m a one-term mayor, then so be it.”