Piles upon piles of garbage line the streets of Philadelphia, and as temperatures hover above 90 degrees, the stench is almost unbearable.

In the early hours of Tuesday, July 1, nearly ten thousand city workers walked off the job a few short minutes after their contract expired. Workers in sanitation, libraries, police dispatch, street maintenance, and water are all members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33 (AFSCME DC 33), Philadelphia’s blue-collar municipal union. They are the city’s lowest-paid employees, making an average of $46,000 per year.

The union’s first strike in nearly forty years has seen the mounds of trash bags dubbed “Parker piles” after Mayor Cherelle Parker. In addition to garbage pickup, the strike has also closed libraries, pools, recreation centers, and other vital city buildings — showing the significance and value of DC 33 members and their work.

Money remains the big sticking point between the union and the Parker administration. Prior to the strike, the city’s final offer intended to give DC 33 members a three-year contract with annual raises of 2.75, 3, and 3 percent. The union, led by Greg Boulware, wanted 5 percent raises each year. To put both offers in perspective, for the average DC 33 member, the mayor’s offer would have meant a salary just over $50,140 after three years, and the union’s proposal would mean $53,250 in the same time frame. Although the two sides aren’t that far apart, they have met multiple times since the strike began and don’t appear much closer to an agreement.

The majority-black union is getting a lot of support from fellow Philadelphians, with public opinion placing the blame for the strike solely on the mayor and her administration. This came to a head on the Fourth of July, as the city hosts a huge celebration every year with a concert and giant display of fireworks. The Wawa Welcome America festivities are usually set up and broken down by members of DC 33, but this year the workers set up picket lines instead.

City government asked non–DC 33 members to volunteer to do their work — with the caveat that they’d need to be comfortable lifting fifty pounds and should wear steel-toed boots. When it didn’t get enough volunteers, the city hired outside contractors. (It is rumored that members of the Laborers’ International Union of America, or LiUNA!, were moving barricades and picking up trash, which is DC 33 work.) Union members and supporters expressed anger that, instead of coming to the table with a deal for the workers, the mayor chose to spend taxpayer dollars on expensive contractors. Following a public outcry, the concert headliners, LL Cool J and Jazmine Sullivan, who is from Philadelphia, both pulled out of the show.

Friends, family members, and neighbors of DC 33 members are horrified by how little they’re paid. According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, the average DC 33 member’s salary is $2,000 below the city’s living wage. It’s not enough for a single adult with no children, let alone households with families to care for. While the people who make Philadelphia work can’t afford to live there, the mayor found enough money to dole out huge raises to her staff, angering the union, its supporters, and Philadelphia taxpayers.

Mayor Parker’s first budget in 2024 grew spending by 150 percent, with the average staffer receiving a 16 percent salary increase. But bigwigs got even higher pay bumps: the managing director received a 32 percent raise, while her communications director got a 31 percent increase. This year other staffers in the mayor’s office got raises of 20 percent or more. The city claims it doesn’t have enough money to give the members of DC 33 a decent raise, but there was clearly enough for big raises for the mayor’s inner circle.

The strike has had some hugely tense moments so far. A member has been accused of slashing the tires of a city-owned truck; people opened fire hydrants all over the city, including on the mayor’s block; picketers have blocked police from entering city-owned lots and yards; and there have been countless scuffles between members and nonmembers on the picket lines. The mayor has responded by winning injunctions requiring water department and 911 call center employees to return to work to ensure public health and safety, and she also won a legal victory about the size and location of picket lines.

White-collar city workers, organized with Local 2187 in AFSCME District Council 47, may be joining their brothers and sisters in DC 33 on the picket. They will take a strike vote this week due to “strong interest from our membership,” according to Local 2187 president Jesse Jordan.

Whether the DC 33 strike is settled imminently or drags on indefinitely, it will be far from the end of the fight for Philadelphia’s municipal workers.