Mayor Cherelle Parker turned to nonunion city workers and sanitation trainees to help with trash removal during the DC 33 strike
To some, the nonunion city workers were relieving a messy situation. To others, they were simply scabs caught in difficult circumstances.
Throughout Philadelphia’s municipal worker strike, which finally ended at about 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker relied upon nonunion city employees and trainees who do sanitation work to help beat back the tide of trash — including some part-timers who are training to become members of the same union that was on the picket line.
Some of the staffers were put on 12-hour rotations and assigned to the drop-off sites set up as an alternative to residential trash collection since the members of District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees walked off the job July 1. Other staffers have helped clear piles of refuse that have sprung up in parks.
» READ MORE: Philly’s city worker strike ends after Mayor Cherelle Parker strikes deal with AFSCME District Council 33
Two main groups of city employees were helping to fill in for the sanitation work of DC 33’s members: hourly employees in the streets department’s “Future Track” trainee program, and full-time employees in the Community Life Improvement Program, or CLIP, a neighborhood beautification program that is not unionized.
To some, the nonunion city workers were relieving a messy situation. To others, they were simply scabs — albeit ones caught in difficult circumstances.
“I feel bad for the Future Track folks because they’ve joined the program to begin a career in public service only to have their first project be scabbing the very workers that they want to join,” said Danny Bauder, president of the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO, a federation of labor organizations. “It’s a tough situation, and I really feel for those kids.”
As for the workers themselves, some told The Inquirer they felt helpless, being made to work under the threat of disciplinary action and against the wishes of a union some were about to join.
“It’s complicated,” said one member of Future Track, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. “Those are our brothers and sisters in DC 33 who are striking. And we’re not trying to cross what they got going on. But we’re forced to go. … We can’t say no.”
Carlton Williams, director of the Philadelphia Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, said the city’s goal “is to keep our neighborhoods clean and safe.”
“The city is using every resource at its disposal to provide essential services to residents during this strike, including trash removal,” Williams said. “We are proud of our Future Track trainees and our CLIP workers as well.”
City payroll records show that, as of late April, 185 nonunion workers were listed as “Future Track trainees” under the streets department, earning $17 an hour. In theory, employees in this program are on track to rise to salaried jobs within the department, joining DC 33 in the process.
The Future Track staffer said he and many colleagues supported DC 33 in its quest for a more generous contract, as many trainees are banking on earning more as salaried employees.
“We working for the city, but not in the union just yet,” he said. “And these are long shifts. For $17 an hour. We’re barely making it; we’re barely surviving.”
An additional 178 staffers at CLIP have been put on 12-hour shifts since the strike. This program, created in the early 2000s and run through the Philadelphia Managing Director’s Office, performs spot cleanups and scrubs graffiti across the city, typically in response to complaints from residents, Council members, or other officials.
While these workers are salaried, earning about $48,000 annually, they are not affiliated with any union.
The city also relies on hundreds more private-sector cleanup workers who are employed through Taking Care of Business PHL — a program Parker created as a City Council member to clean up neighborhood commercial corridors and has expanded as mayor. TCB PHL, as Parker calls it, gives grants to community-based nonprofit organizations that in turn pay contractors to clean litter along neighborhood shopping strips and in surrounding areas.
But the city commerce department, which administers TCB, sent out an advisory to participants on July 1, the first day of the strike, instructing them to proceed with litter cleaning “without performing duties that would normally be the responsibility of city personnel.”
Philadelphia also has several quasi-governmental business-funded organizations, like the Center City District, that pay for street-cleaning services in their areas. Those groups are separate from the city, and their workers are not on strike.
It all added up to a surprisingly large workforce of people trying to keep the city clean during the DC 33 strike, helping Parker weather the emergency. But it may come at the cost of strain between the administration and organized labor, which views the work as an affront to workers fighting for the opportunity to make decent livings for their families.
The Future Track staffer said he had encountered some uncomfortable moments with DC 33 members. He said he and his colleagues had to walk a careful line between appeasing their supervisors and appearing too enthusiastic about working amid a strike.
“With all the tension going on, we just do what we’re told to,” he said. “We just pick up a couple bags here and there.”