As the clock was nearing midnight last Monday, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker called union president Greg Boulware in a final bid to avert Philadelphia’s first city worker strike in 39 years.
Parker was still not willing to meet Boulware’s demands on 5% annual raises he was seeking to win for his members in their next contract, the key issue in negotiations. Instead, she asked Boulware to consider something that wasn’t part of the contract negotiations at all: her Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E., initiative, which City Council approved during budget negotiations in June.
“I also made very clear to president Boulware just last night that all of those housing programs developed by my administration in partnership with the City Council were developed with his members in mind,” Parker said at a news conference. “And still the union walked away from the bargaining table.”
Ever since the more than 9,000 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33 walked off the job six days ago, Parker has implored the striking city employees to view her offer in the context of everything else her administration has done for them, especially the 5% raise she agreed to give them in last year’s contract and the H.O.M.E. initiative.
So far, it’s been a fruitless endeavor.
In a Saturday interview with WURD Radio, Boulware sought to dispel “rhetoric that’s been spewed by the administration” about last year’s raise and “put to bed” Parker’s talking points on H.O.M.E.
“There has never been a housing agreement nor will there ever be a housing agreement that is part of any collective bargaining agreement,” Boulware said. “Now, if the mayor is working on this housing thing, fantastic … but do not try to put that on District Council 33 as if it is part of this agreement, because it’s not.”
There was no formal negotiating session Sunday, meaning the strike is certain to last at least seven days, and the union appears to be preparing for an even longer work stoppage. In a Facebook post, DC 33 on Sunday encouraged supporters to drop off water and food at picket lines and said it is setting up an online fundraising portal “to support our existing strike fund.”
Lee Saunders, the national president of AFSCME, is scheduled to visit Philadelphia on Monday, a DC 33 spokesperson said.
Raise rhetoric
Parker’s last publicly known contract offer was for a three-year deal with annual raises of 2.75%, 3%, and 3%, or a combined 8.75%.
But in her messaging, Parker has referred to her offer as a “historic” 13% by combining those raises with the 5% DC 33 members got in a one-year deal for 2024, the first year of her administration.
Last year’s raise, she has emphasized, was the largest single-year increase DC 33 members have secured in three decades and the combined total of 13.75% would also be the largest during a single term of any mayor in that time frame.
Boulware isn’t impressed. Last year, he resisted signing a one-year deal with Parker for months, only giving in after securing the 5% raise.
“It wasn’t given to us. We fought for it,” he said. “Our men and women earned that 5%. That 5% is now done and over with. It’s a wrap.”
Housing opportunities
Parker’s signature housing plan involves borrowing $800 million to support a slew of new and existing housing programs aimed at helping working-class families.
None of the programs are restricted to DC 33 members or to city employees. But Parker said Thursday that the city could set aside money in a program that helps lower-income residents get mortgages.
“What did you put on the table, mayor, specifically for District Council 33 members, not for the city of Philadelphia at large?” Parker asked rhetorically at a news conference Thursday, criticizing Boulware for not engaging her about the housing plan. “We talked about segregating $7.5 [million] to $10 million in mortgage assistance specifically allocated for attraction and retention of our blue-collar municipal employees. And I was told that the members of District Council 33 are not interested in obtaining a 30-year mortgage, low-rate mortgage, so that they can become homeowners.”
Parker also noted that she increased the income eligibility for the popular Basic Systems Repair Program, which is meant to prevent owners from losing their houses due to costly home repair needs, to ensure middle-class families would be able to access it.
Progressives opposed the change, fearing it would limit resources for the poorest homeowners. Parker said Thursday she insisted on the change “to ensure that men and women like our blue-collar municipal workers who are part of District Council 33 … can get access to supports.”
Parker’s big picture
The mayor’s pitch on the H.O.M.E. initiative is no cynical ploy.
Parker has dedicated her political career to bolstering so-called middle neighborhoods, a term for middle-class enclaves that are neither deeply impoverished nor flourishing and that have been disappearing in cities across the country due to widening income inequality.
The promise of economic advancement offered by public-sector jobs — and the stability families supported by those jobs bring to their neighborhoods — is a fundamental part of her vision.
That’s why she is adamant about preserving Philadelphia’s residency rule requiring most city employees to live in the city, which is another sticking point in negotiations. DC 33 is asking for its members to be allowed to move out of Philly after 10 years of service. (Police officers and firefighters are allowed to move out after five years thanks to arbitration awards they won about 15 years ago over the city’s objections.)
When she was a Council member, Parker and former Council President Darrell L. Clarke championed a measure making residency rules more restrictive, by requiring many city jobs be preserved for people who have already been living in Philadelphia for at least one year.
She has also sought to loosen civil service rules that determine who can be considered for open positions and promotions, such as by eliminating degree requirements for certain jobs. She cast those moves as an effort to diversify the municipal workforce and ensure working-class Philadelphians can access city jobs.
But no matter how genuine Parker’s pitch is when it comes to housing and last year’s raise, it doesn’t seem to be helping her persuade Boulware to view her contract proposal more favorably.
“I find it, quite honestly, quite frustrating,” Boulware told WURD.
