In Philadelphia, a city that proudly displays its grit, from the “Rocky” steps to the Liberty Bell, an unwelcome sight is propagating this summer: mountains of trash.
A strike by Philadelphia’s largest public sector union entered its second week on Tuesday, disrupting garbage collection and a host of other services in the nation’s sixth most populous city.
The contract impasse between the city and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33, which represents roughly 9,000 municipal employees, including 1,000 sanitation workers, has forced municipal agencies to scale back programs.
Others have been suspended by the city, which closed some of its public libraries and warned of longer repair times should there be a water main break or street cave-in.
But little could prepare people for the stench of overflowing garbage, much of it concentrated around more than 60 temporary collection sites set up by the city for residents to drop off up to eight bags per household on their usual scheduled pickup day.
Frankie Olivieri, the owner of Pat’s King of Steaks, one of Philadelphia’s venerable cheese steak purveyors, said in an interview on Tuesday that the odor was so overpowering that he had gone to the beach for some fresh air.
“All big cities have a certain perfume to them in the summer time, people say,” Mr. Olivieri said. “But the smell is wafting down the streets as you turn up some streets and then you’re catching smells of household trash, which is really, really horrible.”
To deal with the onslaught of garbage, the city has enlisted private contractors and nonunion municipal employees, a plan that has encountered intense criticism over its effectiveness.
“We’re out every day working to collect the trash as quickly and as efficiently as we can,” Joe Grace, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, said on Tuesday.
The union and the city have been clashing over the proposed terms of a new contract for the mostly blue-collar workers, who include sanitation and sewage treatment plant workers, 911 dispatchers, morgue employees and crossing guards.
The workers had been operating under a one-year contract extension that expired on July 1 and are seeking a multiyear deal.
The two sides have remained split over wage increases offered by the city, which union officials say do not keep up with inflation.
In its eighth day, the strike is the first extended work stoppage by the union in nearly 40 years.
More than 300 of the 9,000 striking workers, including 911 dispatchers, were ordered to back to the job during the strike’s first week after the city was granted a series of legal injunctions. Workers at a city morgue were also required to return to work after the city’s medical examiner complained that the strike had created a backlog of cadavers.
Greg Boulware, the president of the union’s District Council 33, said in an interview on Monday that the union workers were struggling to afford living in Philadelphia.
“The city clearly identifies our members as essential, but doesn’t pay them as essential,” Mr. Boulware said.
Philadelphia’s mayor, Cherelle Parker, a Democrat, has argued that the city’s offer to the union is its most generous in decades and is more competitive than those offered to similar workers in other large U.S. cities.
It includes a total wage increase of 13.75 percent over four years, with 5 percent applied retroactively from the one-year contract extension that just expired, according to the city. (The union has countered that the 5 percent skews the total amount.)
“Mayor Parker has made clear her goal is to reach a fair and fiscally responsible agreement for the hard-working men and women of District Council 33, as well as for the city of Philadelphia,” Mr. Grace, the spokesman for the mayor’s office, said on Tuesday.
Both sides returned to the negotiating table on Tuesday as the impasse entered its second week and the trash bags continued to pile up.
Larry West, who lives a half-mile from one of the temporary trash collection sites, said in an interview on Tuesday that the dumpster there was overflowing onto the sidewalk and street. At first, he said, it was placed across from a school and playground. Then, it was moved across from where children go to summer camp, he said.
“It’s just horrific,” Mr. West said.
A video he posted on X showed bags of trash lining the street around a dumpster.
“Who’s going to clean it up when it’s done?” Mr. West said of the strike.
Mr. Olivieri, the cheese steak shop owner, raised concerns that garbage-strewn sidewalks and streets were uninviting.
“People aren’t going come to Philadelphia if the trash is piled high,” he said.
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
Rylee Kirk reports on breaking news, trending topics and major developing stories.
Campbell Robertson reports for The Times on Delaware, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
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