Philadelphia City Workers Return to Work After Union Leadership Imposes Sell-Out Contract

Read our editorial on the significance of strikes here.

After 8 days on strike, DC33 city workers in Philadelphia reached a tentative deal with the city for a 3% yearly raise over the course of three years and a one-time $1,500 bonus. Striking workers were fighting for a 32% pay raise, with many workers on the picket lines telling The Worker they would not settle for anything less than a yearly 5% raise. Despite this, union leadership abruptly informed workers on Wednesday (07/09) that they reached a tentative deal for far less than the striking workers’ wage demands, forcing workers back to work.

Throughout the strike, workers took militant action to enforce their strike while being assailed by the combined forces of their business union leadership, local politicians, courts, and the police.

The city filed several injunctions against striking workers, with the court siding with the city and ordering many workers back to work, including 911 call center workers, water department workers, and airport dispatchers. The court also made direct attacks on the ability of workers to enforce their strike, with the court ruling that pickets could not obstruct buildings and limited the size of picket lines to 8 people or less. The police arrested several workers who attempted to enforce their strike and block scabs.

The workers continuously attempted to surpass the boundaries set for them by their union leadership and the city, both through direct action and agitation. At one picket, workers chanted, “In the streets, in the fight, workers of the world unite!” and “Workers unite, organize and fight!”

The city’s events for the Fourth of July served as a focal point for this militancy. A few workers told a volunteer with The Worker that picketers physically attempted to block the city parade until they were forced off the street by the police. At one protest, picketers and protesters attempted to block trucks from entering the July 4th Music Festival grounds but were thwarted by union leadership and police, despite being ready to take more direct action, according to a volunteer for The Worker present. Local politicians and bureaucrats with the American Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO) pacified the crowd, stalling efforts to block the trucks. Union bureaucracy also held back efforts of striking workers to agitate concert workers and attendees to not cross the picket line.

Many workers expressed their anger toward the opportunism of Democrat Mayor Cherelle Parker, who fashions herself as a “pro-labor” mayor: “It felt like she used labor and people’s struggles as a way to get into where she is, and now that it’s her time for her to reflect that, she’s not doing it,” a striking worker told The Worker.

By and large, the people of Philadelphia were behind the workers. Headliners for a 4th of July Music Festival, Rapper LL Cool J and singer-songwriter Jazmine Sullivan both dropped out of the festival in solidarity with the strike. One striking worker told The Worker, “the city’s rocking with us”, while another noted how other unionized workers, including teachers who recently authorized a strike, showed up on the picket line. Many librarians and members of DC47 refused to cross the picket lines and joined striking workers. At one picket line, an activists put a phone call with political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal over a megaphone, who spoke to the crowd: “[…] I love it when working class people come together to fight for their rights. I love it when Unions come together to fight for their people. I support all of you city workers for what you’re doing.”

The strike for better wages comes amid the deepening imperialist economic crisis, as inflation cuts into workers wages while monopolies reap record profits. “I feel like everyone kind of knows that feeling of you don’t have enough to pay the bills, and also eat, and also rent—rent’s crazy,” a worker on the picket line told The Worker.

A “pay raise” that doesn’t keep up with inflation is still a pay cut, and the latest sell-out contract imposed on workers means that their struggle to pay their bills and get by remains unaddressed.

This article has been updated to accurately reflect the pay “raises” offered in the Tentative Agreement as 9% total over 3 annual raises, rather than 3% total over 3 years.

Photo: Workers and activists rally outside city event preparations. Credit: The Worker

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