In a ‘union town,’ Philly residents debate whether using trash drop-off sites is crossing a picket line

Wednesday was only Day 2 of a 9,000-municipal worker strike in Philadelphia, often touted as a union town, and residents are smelling the impact in every neighborhood of the city.

As the whiffs of trash grew more powerful, many residents opted to use one of the 61 temporary trash drop-off sites set up by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration. But that sparked a debate among even the most ardent of labor supporters: Is the use of these dumpsters scabbing?

So far, public sentiment, including some residents, various City Council members, and other labor unions, has been on the side of District Council 33, part of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which includes the city’s sanitation workers who walked off the job at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

Stories of grueling hours in extreme weather conditions, often for little pay, resonated with many in the city. The average salary for DC 33 members is $46,000, making many members eligible for public assistance.

For many, crossing the picket lines at the city’s six trash convenience centers operating at extended hours was obviously out of the question, though some people circumvented the quandary by dumping their trash on the side of the road near these facilities.

Others described the temporary garbage drop-off sites as a gray area.

DC 33 workers picketing the Port Richmond convenience center said Monday that using any of the 61 temporary garbage drop-off sites also undermined the strike, but union leadership has not made any official public statements on the matter.

Spirited debates took place on social media, with many union supporters arguing that the use of temporary drop-off sites weakened DC 33’s strongest form of leverage in negotiations. People offering to scoop up bags for small fees also quickly came under fire.

On Reddit, one user asked residents not to use the temporary sites because of the strain they placed on neighbors next to the dumpsters.

One user said using the sites “is just handling the nuisance issue.”

“Scabbing would be hiring someone to pick up your trash and bring it to the dump sites,” the user wrote.

The mounting stacks of garbage were soon slapped with the moniker “Parker piles.”

The debate spilled out in real life at 50th and Locust Streets, where residents stepped over “don’t be a scab,” written in pink and blue chalk, to add their trash to the overfilled dumpster that sat across from a set of rowhouses. The same anti-scab message appeared in white on the side of a dumpster, as well as some insults directed at the mayor.

“This is not crossing the picket line — the picket line ain’t here,” said Roland Clayton, 77, after dropping a couple of loads.

Robert Rathmann, 58, backed his navy blue pickup truck close to the dumpster and chucked a few bags inside, standing in its bed. He even took a bag from an older woman as she walked up and tossed it in for her. Rathmann said he didn’t see it as crossing a line either, just doing what is necessary.

“I think it’s doing your part to keep the city streets clean during a bad time,” he said.

At Broad Street and Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia, an intersection that already struggles with excessive littering and occasional illegal dumping, Hillary, who said she did not want to give her last name and be the face of the “confused contingent,” was aware of the debate and felt the drop-off sites fell in a gray zone.

“We recognize that inconvenience is part of a strike and we support DC 33, but we already have issues with rodents,” she said, indicating the dozens of bags of smelly trash lining the block. “This is definitely still sending a message.”

Despite the city’s efforts to swap out full containers with empty ones multiple times a day, some drop-off sites were much busier than others, causing traffic bottlenecks and trash overflow that bled onto sidewalks.

Across social media, residents from across the city posted photos of drop-off sites where the bags lined the block. Even recently emptied dumpsters, like the two on the 15th Street and Moyamensing Avenue side of South Philly’s Marconi Plaza and the one by Murphy Recreation Center, wafted strong odors on a balmy Wednesday.

Ad hoc drop-off sites were also quickly forming on busy commercial streets, even as the mayor asked people to use the designated sites and not put out their garbage on sidewalks.

Crystal Jacobs Shipman, the commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Sanitation, said the vendors who are swapping out dumpsters are separate from those picking up the rows of bags piling up on sidewalks. Parker, who referred to herself at a Wednesday news conference as a pro-labor mayor, did not specify who was collecting the trash when asked on Wednesday.

She said the city is “employing the supports of as many people” as possible to address the crisis.

Meer Robinson, 33, brought his two bags of trash on his grocery cart and was equally supportive of the strike, saying he didn’t “see the issue” with the workers’ demands because they were doing the jobs no one in City Hall is willing to do.

“But if they don’t want us to use these things, they should be clear and specific,” said Robinson of the temporary trash sites.