Trash and tensions grow as talks between DC 33 and the city are expected to resume Tuesday

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker made no public appearances Monday, as the city’s largest municipal union hauled its first strike in nearly 40 years into its seventh straight day. But its members had a message for the mayor — and the residents of Philadelphia.

“If you can’t stand the smell, blame it on Cherelle,” members of District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees chanted while awaiting the arrival of AFSCME national president Lee Saunders at a Port Richmond sanitation convenience center where, days before, a reckless driver hit two DC 33 workers on the picket line.

Across town in South Philadelphia, city officials gathered for a news conference that included, among other things, a tour of a temporary drop-off site at 15th and Bigler Streets. Parker was not present, but Carlton Williams, director of the Philadelphia Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, encouraged residents to utilize the site and those like it responsibly to avoid further building the mounds of trash that complicate an already messy situation. Those mounds, as negotiations have hit a stalemate in recent days, have come to be known as “Parker piles.”

“Do not place trash outside of these dumpsters,” Williams said. “It causes a condition and slows us down in the collection process.”

» READ MORE: Philadelphians take to social media to gripe about the DC 33 strike and the resulting ‘Parker piles’

Williams said that the city was working to provide additional service at trash collection sites and to expand its capacity. He implored the public to refrain from illegal dumping, noting the sites were for “residential trash only,” not private businesses or contractors. In Logan during the weekend, he added, there was an arrest in the case of a local business using a drop-off site to throw away rotten chicken and “unused oil.”

The perpetrator, Williams added, would be “held to the fullest extent” of the law, which includes a fine of up to $5,000 per item per incident. Additional information about the incident was not immediately available.

Three others were arrested Monday at City Hall after activists from Sunrise Movement placed a black trash bag on a security desk with a note reading, “Special Delivery for Mayor Parker.” A protester then dumped the contents of another trash bag on the floor.

“We did this to stand in solidarity with DC 33 and show Mayor Parker that this trash don’t need to be at playgrounds, and it don’t need to be in our communities,” said Wanya Allen, the group’s action lead.

Police said those arrested would be charged with defiant trespassing. But, Allen said, the demonstration accomplished its goal of sending a message.

“Trash is not downtown at all, a lot of trash is in the poor and working-class communities of Philadelphia,” he said. “We brought it to her office so she saw what it’s like.”

Negotiations between the city and the union, meanwhile, continued to stagnate. No talks were scheduled Monday, and there had been little progress made between the two sides in coming to an agreement. Additional talks, DC 33 president Greg Boulware said, were expected to resume at some point Tuesday.

Tensions, however, remain high. Some of the city’s conduct throughout the strike, Boulware said in Port Richmond, has been “deplorable,” causing progress to be difficult, if not impossible.

“It’s hard to have a conversation when someone wants to drop a piece of paper in front of you, then walk out of the room for four hours at a time,” said Boulware, adding that DC 33 was “in the process” of filing an unfair labor practice complaint against the city.

By Boulware’s account, the Parker administration’s latest contract offer is the “exact same offer” previously given. Parker’s last publicly known contract offer was for a three-year deal with annual raises of 2.75%, 3%, and 3%, or a combined 8.75%. But in her messaging, Parker has referred to her offer as a “historic” 13% by combining those raises with the 5% DC 33 members got in a one-year deal for 2024, the first year of her administration.

“Line for line, verbatim, the exact same thing,” Boulware said.

There remain “several” sticking points in the negotiations, said Williams, who did not elaborate at Monday’s news conference. The main issue, he added, is members’ wages, which stand at an average of $46,000 annually.

» READ MORE: Philly is in its first municipal strike in the social media age. Does that affect how events are unfolding?

“I don’t know all in detail, and I can’t provide that information right now, but there’s a number of issues that both sides want to get resolved,” Williams said. “While we’re doing that, we have to try to provide a service to mitigate the health impacts of leaving trash all over the place in the city.”

In Port Richmond, Saunders, AFSCME national’s president, could not say how long the road to a new contract for DC 33 members would be. But he did not appear to be rushing a timeline.

“One day longer, one day stronger,” Saunders chanted Monday. “We will win this fight.”

Staff writer Michelle Myers contributed to this article.