Credit: Philadelphia City Councilmember Rue Landau's Twitter/X account @RuePhilaCouncil
Philadelphia has a deep-rooted history of labor struggle.
The city’s first significant labor protest occurred in 1835, when Schuylkill River dockworkers struck for a ten-hour workday. In a sweeping display of solidarity, various trades joined the strike—parading in the streets with drummers, fife players, and calls of “we are all day laborers”—culminating in the acceptance of a 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. workday by city-run employees.
Philadelphia’s labor battles didn’t end there. In 1877, residents, including railroad workers like the author’s great-grandfather, witnessed the spread of the Great Railroad Strike, which started elsewhere but reached Pennsylvania, prompting the deployment of the National Guard to quell unrest and protect property.
More recently, labor strife has remained alive in the city. In June 2025, a strike by AFSCME District Council 33 disrupted essential public services—from emergency response and library access to trash collection—mirroring a heat-driven sanitation strike in 1986, when piles of uncollected garbage lined Philadelphia’s streets until negotiations ended the work stoppage.
Michael Thomas Liebrandt dove into that history on Fideri Network's Broad + Liberty. Read it here.
