District Council 33 is on strike. Here’s what the union does and what is impacted.

The largest union for Philadelphia’s city workers went on strike Tuesday, potentially impacting a slew of city services in the days leading up to July Fourth weekend celebrations.

With nearly 10,000 members, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33 represents municipal employees ranging from sanitation workers to Philadelphia Housing Authority employees, among others. In mid-June, roughly 95% of them voted to authorize their leaders to call a strike if they were unable to secure a new contract with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration before Tuesday morning’s deadline.

The strike follows what AFSCME District Council 33 president Greg Boulware has described as five months of stalled contract negotiations. A late-night negotiating session Monday failed to produce an agreement.

“If you appreciate the labor, you have to show that in the wallet for our people because that’s the only way it’s truly going to be meaningful,” Boulware told The Inquirer.

Here is what you need to know:

AFSCME District Council 33 represents a wide swath of city employees who perform manual labor and skilled trades. Known colloquially as DC 33, its members hold jobs in a variety of city agencies, including in the streets, sanitation, and parks and recreation departments, as well as in corrections and the Philadelphia Housing Authority. DC 33 workers include police dispatchers, trash collectors, water treatment plant operators, and others.

 Though it is the largest city workers union, it is also the lowest-paid of Philadelphia’s four major municipal unions, with members earning about $46,000 a year on average. It is also the only union of the big four in which a majority of its members are Black, The Inquirer previously reported.

Historically, DC 33 has played a key role in city politics, including during the adoption of the Home Rule Charter, which essentially serves as the city’s version of the Constitution, in the 1950s. Its internal politics are also fiery, owing to a factional power struggle that has been playing out since the 1990s.

Boulware won his position as union president last year following an intense leadership battle and is associated with a faction of the union that has been at odds with Parker since her run for mayor in 2023. He has vowed to win major compensation increases for the union’s members, and last year fought Parker for months over the mayor’s push for unions to sign one-year contract extensions instead of multiyear deals.

While the full impact of the strike is difficult to predict, its effects would include the stoppage of trash collection in residential neighborhoods, potentially slower 911 call response times, and reduction of hours at city-run recreation centers.

City officials on Monday detailed a contingency plan to be activated should a strike occur. They said many city services would remain operational, albeit with some alterations.

Trash collection, for example, would be put on hold, and city residents would be asked to not set their garbage out on the curb on their usual collection day. Instead, Parker said, the city plans to open 63 temporary drop-off locations where residents would be able to bring their trash on their given collection day.

Information about the drop off locations was not immediately available, but will be posted to the Philadelphia city government website.

Water service would continue as normal, Parker said, with the Philadelphia Water Department cross-training staff to keep drinking water and wastewater service running. Service impacts, such as increased repair times for water main breaks and open hydrants, are possible.

911 call centers will remain operational, with the Philadelphia Police Department moving some personnel from the street into the centers to keep them running, Commissioner Kevin Bethel said.

Recreation centers, officials said, would remain open, but with hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. instead of the normal 9 p.m. closing. Summer camps would continue to operate, and more than two dozen city pools would remain open, should a strike occur.

The city’s Fourth of July celebrations would not be impacted by any possible strike, Parker said.

DC 33 has gone on strike in the past, but the union has not done so in about 40 years. Its last significant work stoppage was in 1986, which, among other impacts, resulted in 45,000 tons of “stinking, maggot-laced garbage” sitting unattended at neighborhood disposal sites for about 20 days, the Daily News and New York Times reported.

Six years later, in 1992, the union briefly walked off the job, but reached a deal with the city after 14 hours.

In November, DC 33 members also authorized a strike amid contract negotiations with Parker’s administration, but ultimately approved a contract extension and avoided the threatened stoppage.

Staff writers Sean Collins Walsh and Beatrice Forman contributed to this article.