AFSCME District Council 47
Last Wednesday, District Council 33 and the city of Philadelphia reached a contract agreement that stopped a historic eight-day strike.
The strike caused a work stoppage within multiple essential services in the city, including the most significant - trash pick-up stoppage.
Within the eight days that the union paused all trash pick-ups, 63 drop off sites throughout the city became overflown with garbage, and were a main stage attraction for insects and rodents.
Philadelphia residents complained about the stench and the concern for public health and safety that the overflows were causing.
Officials said that regular trash pick-ups will return to regular service today, while District Council 33 votes on the new contract at hand.
DC 33 president, Greg Boulware, has expressed his frustration with the city and his dissatisfaction with the contract at hand. He felt they made the best decision under the circumstances at hand.
“Your union stood up and fought for you, and we did the best we could with the circumstances we had in front of us," Boulware explained on Wednesday when the contract was presented.
According to an email sent to the District Council 47 members on July 1st, a second union in Philadelphia is holding an authorization vote on whether it should go on strike or not.
The structure of District Council 47 is much more complicated than that of their colleagues in the District Council 33 union. DC 47 is a collective of nine local unions, of which only two represent Philadelphia city workers.
Of the two municipal unions represented by DC 47, only one of them is legally authorized to strike. Local 2187 represents administrative assistants and professionals, and the union is hosting a vote for the strike.
During the DC33 strike, Boulware, strongly advocated for the work stoppage amongst the union workers. However, with DC 47, President Jesse Jordan of Local 2187 said the strike vote is taking place due to member requests as stated in his July 1 email.
The last full-year contract between the city and DC 47 expired on July 1, the same day as DC 33’s contract; however, DC 47 signed a two-week contract extension to allow time for negotiations.
Because DC 47 signed a contract extension, they will not be permitted to walk off the job until the contract period expires tomorrow, July 15.
DC 47 and DC 33 have numerous differences within their unions, which is why DC 33 has historically been more willing to confront the city directly for better pay.
DC 47 is still negotiating a new contract with the city.
Philly Daily contacted DC 47 for comment about their negotiations with the city, but despite multiple promises of call backs from leadership to comment, none of the calls were actually returned.
