Parker administration reaches contract agreement with union that fought return-to-office policy

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration has reached an agreement with the union that represents thousands of the city’s professional and supervisory staff, ending a monthslong stalemate and extending workers’ existing contract for a year.

Parker announced Friday that officials inked the deal with District Council 47 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents about 3,700 city employees like social workers and building inspectors and has been working on an expired contract since July.

The pact includes a 4.4% raise and a $1,400 bonus, the union’s largest single-year raise in 30 years.

“This is a fair deal for every individual in District Council 47, and it’s a fair deal for the taxpayers of the city of Philadelphia,” Parker said during a news conference.

» READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle Parker’s return-to-office policy caused a rift with union leaders

DC 47′s leaders outwardly opposed Parker for months this year after she required all city workers return to in-person work following several years of hybrid flexibility. Union leaders said the policy should have been collectively bargained and would exacerbate the city’s understaffing crisis.

The union sued over the policy, but Parker’s administration prevailed in court. DC 47 is still seeking arbitration over the policy.

No one from the union’s leadership was in the room Friday for Parker’s announcement. David Wilson, president of Local 2187, which falls under DC 47, said they did not attend because the administration “did not treat members with the same level of respect that we believe we should have been treated with.”

”Despite our members voting for the [extension] — it was either a raise or no raise for the year — we believe that she truly doesn’t view municipal workers respectfully like she says she does,” Wilson said.

Parker said the union leaders have “every right to make whatever decision they need to make for their membership.”

In addition to the raise, the contract extension also increases the amount of paid parental leave from six to eight weeks allows employees more flexibility to use their sick time to care for family members, and makes the day after Thanksgiving a city-recognized holiday.

The agreement, which will cost the city an additional $11.5 million next year, also includes an $850,000 lump sum payment into the union’s health and welfare fund.

Since the mayor took office in January, Parker’s administration has been working to extend each of the four major municipal unions’ contracts for a year, with the idea that the city would negotiate traditional, multiyear contracts next year. The unions that represent police and firefighters — and now, professional and supervisory staff — agreed.

But reaching such a deal with AFSCME District Council 33, the largest municipal union and represents lower-wage employees such as sanitation workers and prison guards, has proved more complicated.

That union earlier this year underwent a power shift after its members elected a new president, Greg Boulware, who campaigned in part on pushing for a traditional multiyear contract. He replaced former President Omar Salaam, a Parker ally who was open to a one-year extension.

Perritti DiVirgilio, director of the Department of Labor, said the city most recently offered DC 33 a one-year extension and the union sent in a four-year proposal.

Boulware declined to comment.