After eight days on strike, DC 33 members will vote on a new contract with the city next week

After more than eight days spent striking for higher wages and better benefits as trash collection and other Philadelphia city services ground to a halt, members of District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees will vote next week to finalize the union’s tentative contract agreement with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration.

A union spokesperson told The Inquirer on Thursday that the ratification vote, conducted via paper ballot, will begin Monday or Tuesday at DC 33 headquarters in West Philadelphia and stretch over multiple days. Results of the vote will not be finalized for one to two weeks, the spokesperson said.

Lasting eight days and four hours, the first major city workers’ strike since 1986 came to an end early Wednesday, sending more than 9,000 blue-collar employees in the city’s largest and lowest-paid municipal union back to work. Parker heralded the deal as “good news,” while DC 33 president Greg Boulware told reporters after negotiations that “the strike is over, and nobody’s happy.”

Wages were the headlining disagreement between the union and the city throughout the tense contract negotiations, which stretched over the July Fourth weekend. Eventually, both parties agreed on a three-year contract with 3% raises each year, which was close to Parker’s original proposal and below the 5% increase DC 33 was striking for. The deal, which will apply retroactively to July 1, also includes a one-time $1,500 bonus and the establishment of a fifth step in the union pay scale, likely increasing wages for veteran members by roughly 2%.

Employees were to report back to their jobs immediately, though the entirety of the contract hinges on ratification. That process, typically a union formality, may invoke more drama this time around, as it is unclear how DC 33’s membership will react to the deal after more than a week on strike. Members will not be repaid for the time they were off the job, an attorney for the union said.

Francis Ryan, a Rutgers University labor historian who has written a book about DC 33, said he is unaware of any instance of a Philadelphia municipal union voting against ratification of a contract. But this time, he said, there may be “a very vigorous debate.”

“I’m not so sure that the members are going to accept this deal as it is,” Ryan said. “There were no cracks in the support from within the union, and they had overwhelming support on the picket lines from other unions and ordinary citizens, so there may be some [DC 33 members] who are questioning why they needed to go back.”

In agreeing to the tentative deal with the city on Wednesday, the union’s executive board voted 21-5 in favor of the contract.

That is according to a letter from Boulware, posted on social media Thursday, outlining the union’s agreement with the city to its members. In the letter, Boulware called the strike “necessary” and said “we set lofty goals as a clear reflection of what our members truly deserve.”

“Every demand was rooted in lived experience — in the realities of workers who keep this city moving yet are too often denied the respect and resources that should come with that responsibility," Boulware wrote.

He said that the city proposed “unacceptable” changes to sick policy and work rules — such as altering workers’ schedules or outsourcing work — but that DC 33 “successfully defeated” them.

A spokesperson for Parker declined to comment on the letter.

For a deal that was seen mostly as a win for Parker, the union president did claim victory in one area: DC 33’s Health and Welfare Fund.

Boulware wrote in the letter that the union had maintained its ownership of the fund, which may have been one of the nonwage-related points of contention during negotiations.

Even though this strike is over, Boulware said, DC 33 will keep up “the fight.”

“Philadelphia works because we do!” he wrote.

Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.