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What Philly’s garbage strike of 1986 looked like

After about 20 days, the strike resulted in roughly 45,000 tons of ‘stinking, maggot-laced garbage’ sitting at neighborhood disposal sites.
Marybel Colon, 10, of Philadelphia holds her mouth and nose while cutting through a temporary dumpsite in her neighborhood in Philadelphia, July 15, 1986, due to the strike by municipal workers. Read moreCharles Krupa / Associated Press
    by Nick Vadala
    Updated 
    Published 

Judging by The Inquirer and Daily News’ coverage of the last major garbage strike, we ain’t seen nothing yet.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33’s strike began at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday after the union and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration did not reach an agreement on a new contract. And while that work stoppage has already had reverberating effects around the city, its current length is just a fraction of the union’s July 1986 strike, which lasted nearly three weeks in total.

Like today’s ongoing strike, that work stoppage kicked off July 1, and quickly resulted in mountains of trash piling up on city streets. After about 20 days, it resulted in roughly 45,000 tons of “stinking, maggot-laced garbage” sitting at neighborhood disposal sites, the Daily News and the New York Times reported nearly 40 years ago.

But until you see it, that amount of trash is just a number. Inquirer and Daily News coverage from the time photographically documented that buildup, which began in small piles here or there. Quickly, however, mountains of garbage stretched as far as the eye could see at some city dump sites, and errant mounds of debris dotted the streets citywide.

That buildup continued for weeks, until July 19, 1986, when trash collectors returned to work and began clearing tons of refuse at trash-transfer sites around the city. Since then, there has not been a major DC 33 work stoppage — until this week.

Here is what the July 1986 trash strike looked like.