Trash and tension mount in Philadelphia on Day 8 of workers strike, while some seek pop-up haulers

Key Points

• On Day 8 of the strike by District Council 33, nearly 10,000 city workers have halted trash collection, causing mounting garbage piles and growing public frustration in Philadelphia.
• While broadly backing the union’s bid for higher pay, some residents and businesses are hiring pop-up haulers like “Ya Fav Trashman” to clear blocked streets, especially to help elderly or families with children.
• Mayor Cherelle Parker has offered about 3% annual raises over three years (plus last year’s 5% increase), but striking workers say a roughly $40,000 starting salary is insufficient for living in the city.
• With around 60 city drop-off sites overflowing and libraries closed in solidarity, illegal dumping of bulk waste has surged, resulting in arrests and fines as officials warn against abusing the strike to pollute.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — As trash and tempers heat up across Philadelphia on Day 8 of a strike by blue-collar city workers Tuesday, some residents and small business owners are hiring pop-up hauling services to clear their blocks of garbage, even as they broadly support the union’s quest for higher pay.

Mayor Cherelle Parker, a Democrat, is standing firm in her offer of raises of about 3% per year over a three-year contract, which comes on top of a 5% raise she gave as an olive branch to all four major city unions after taking office last year.

“I do believe that the mayor has made a gross mistake,” said Jody Sweitzer, who has watched her East Passyunk neighborhood in South Philadelphia gentrify in her 26 years there, leading to higher rents and less diversity. Sweitzer owns a popular downtown bar called Dirty Frank's.

“Forty thousand dollars cannot cut it in Philadelphia, you know," she said, referring to striking workers' pay. "You can barely rent an apartment with that kind of money. So I feel as a resident of Philadelphia that she’s doing injustice to those (workers) who actually live here.”

The strike by District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees involves nearly 10,000 workers, although judges have sided with the city in ordering some critical employees back to work at the city's 911 centers, water department and airport. Judges have also decreed a temporary halt on evictions.

The two sides have met only intermittently since the strike began, but there was hope they would return to the bargaining table on Tuesday. In the summer of 1986, a citywide trash strike went on for three weeks, leaving 45,000 tons of rotting garbage in the streets.

Terrill Haigler, 35, a former sanitation worker who now does private hauling under the handle “Ya Fav Trashman," said stress was on the rise Tuesday along with the 94-degree (34.4-degree Celsius) temperature.

“It's like Gotham City with water ice,” he said, referencing a local treat that is famously mispronounced “wooder ice” by natives.

“We support District Council 33 100%,” Haigler said. “They deserve everything that they’re asking for, but we also have to think about the residents on the other side. There are some people — elderly, mothers who have children — who can’t let the trash sit for five, six, seven and eight days.”

A shop owner on Sweitzer's street hired Haigler to clear the block Tuesday. In turn, he hired two teenagers to help him while he drove a rental truck down the narrow, one-way street that ends at Pat’s King of Steaks.

”Our goal is to hopefully relieve some of that tension by cleaning as many blocks as we can, picking up as much trash as we can for customers, just to give some ease and some peace," Haigler said.

The city has designated about 60 sites as drop-off centers for residential trash, but some are overflowing, while striking workers on hand ask residents not to cross the picket line. Most libraries across the city are also closed, with support workers and security guards off the job.

While Sweitzer hoped the strike would encourage more people to cut down on their trash through composting, city officials said other residents were taking advantage of the situation and discarding mattresses and other bulk items. Offenders in the city's northeast even put out rotten chicken and cooking oil. The chicken tossers were arrested and face $5,000 fines, according to Carlton Williams, director of the city's Office of Clean and Green Initiatives.

“This is not a free pass for illegal dumping around the city of Philadelphia,” Williams said Monday.