AFSCME District Council 33’s eight-day strike in July cost the city $5.4 million, Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration said Friday.
Residential trash collection was halted and a variety of municipal services were significantly impacted when the roughly 9,000 city workers affiliated with DC 33 walked off the job July 1.
The Parker administration established 63 dumpster sites for residents to bring their trash, an initiative that cost $3.4 million, city officials said. To empty and replace the containers, the city paid a number of vendors, including Waste Management and Elliot-Lewis, the mayor’s team added.
Though the dumpster locations were designed for household trash, people piled tires and construction debris at the sites, and illegal dumping proliferated throughout Philadelphia during the strike, said Carlton Williams, Parker’s director of clean and green initiatives, at a Friday afternoon news conference.
Williams said City Hall paid a contractor $2.1 million to bring in heavy equipment to remove the larger items and overflow refuse.
Picketers allegedly vandalized more than 155 compactors, sweepers and other vehicles, costing the city $78,000 in repairs, he added.
Parker’s team calculated the fiscal cost of the work stoppage by comparing payroll data from this year with last year, her budget director, Sabrina Maynard, said. They also worked with impacted departments to find out how much was spent on contracted services, materials and equipment, she explained.
DC 33 members were not paid during the strike, saving the city about $4.7 million. However, that was more than offset by $3.9 million in additional payroll costs to other municipal employees and $6.2 million in unanticipated non-payroll costs, officials said. Much of the latter total went to the sanitation contractors.
A majority of the extra salary – about $2.4 million – flowed to the Philadelphia Police Department, according to a seven-page memo posted by the Parker administration.
DC 33 members returned to work July 9 after union leaders and the mayor’s office agreed to a three-year agreement incorporating 3% annual raises, a $1,500 bonus and an expanded pay scale, among other provisions.
