Under pressure, striking city union gives Parker a win

Piles of leaking trash bags are still stinking up the city s sidewalks and collection sites but the sudden end of the sanitation workers strike early Wednesday morning has already shifted perceptions of the eight-day labor action and the main players in the negotiations The day before social media was still full of references to Parker piles as Mayor Cherelle Parker s critics described the mini-mountains of trash accumulating around the city But this morning as news of a settlement filtered out residents were expressing relief and in a few cases praise for Parker Congratulations Madam Mayor wrote one resident in one of several similar comments left under the city s announcement of the deal on Facebook I knew you would get the deal done mayor Thank you wrote another Meanwhile city workers who are members of AFSCME District Council expressed disappointment and in particular cases anger over their leadership s decision to accept the city s offer of annual pay increases for three years plus a one-time bonus rather than continuing to demand increases of or per year What happened to the when we fight we win requested one DC member on Instagram in a comment that got more than likes I ve lost sleep pay time force peace I m burnt out So where is the win The strike is over and nobody s happy union president Greg Boulware revealed as he left the negotiating table the Inquirer announced I m a little surprised at what the union settled for announced Paul Clark a professor of labor and employment relations at Penn State University who has been following the strike The union president s saying he s unhappy with the outcome That s a little puzzling as to why he would settle if he s clearly unhappy He either clearly thought that there wasn t going to be any more give on the part of the city or he was getting pressure to settle from the membership or other leaders in his union he declared Legal and political pressures Clark and others noted that while DC seemed to have robust residents aid for its pay and benefit demands the strike took place within a larger legal and political context that made it demanding for the union to continue holding out for a better deal The Parker administration won a series of court injunctions requiring striking dispatchers airport dispatchers and therapeutic examiner employees to return to work and the prospect of a broader injunction loomed Francis Ryan a labor historian at Rutgers who wrote a book on the union s history noted that the last trash strike in ended after the city got an injunction ordering sanitation workers back to their jobs DC attorney Sam Spear informed the Inquirer at selected point the courts unfortunately in this country are going to overwhelm the will of the membership In union leader Earl Stout s decision to continue striking for days even after the city agreed to wage increases contributed to his reelection loss two years later Ryan stated This time around Boulware may have concluded that he didn t want to pitfall splintering union solidarity again I think that even though various members are disappointed by the outcome this time their organization is one that they ll stick by Ryan mentioned Another practicable factor is the Trump administration s apathy or even hostility toward big cities and labor unions While the federal regime is not directly involved in the current contract negotiations the strike followed a period of more aggressive activism by labor unions which was spurred in part by assistance from the Biden administration and may be petering out Clark reported Now unions are really back on their heels in terms of what the Trump administration has been doing overall They might feel a need to be a little more defensive and less aggressive he disclosed while adding that it s really hard to say because this is one of the first high profile negotiations since Trump was elected It s hard to say if it s a trend President Trump has also been trying to cancel grant funding to a few city agencies and threatening to punish Philadelphia for its sanctuary status for illegal immigrants He just signed a budget bill that will reduce funding for Medicaid and other programs putting pressure on the state and city budgets That s a sharp contrast to previous historical periods when federal largesse gave the city breathing room to boost employee pay Ryan declared The union leadership was aware that this may be the best deal that they can get at this moment understanding that there s no money coming from Harrisburg and there s no money coming from Washington DC he explained It just might be a matter of Realpolitik that they re just aware of the limitations and that they may be looking to another time where the political environment might be better that they ll be able to fight and get even more he added A qualified win for Parker At the same time despite the Parker pile complaints and calls for the relatively well-compensated mayor to do more for sanitation workers who barely earn a living wage she arguably came out of the dispute in a stronger position observers stated That could help her as her administration negotiates new agreements with other municipal unions whose contracts in the last few days expired including two white-collar locals that are part of AFSCME DC and the police and firefighter unions who are barred from striking It ll be intriguing to see the position she takes with them whether she takes just as hard a line or whether she feels she can be a little more generous now having held the line here with DC Clark noted I give her various credit for handling this relatively skillfully he announced She hasn t really cut her ties with the labor movement by any means She s sort of shown that she can be tough and hold the line That combination could be a pretty good combination when it comes to reelection For Ryan who has studied AFSCME s relationship with Philadelphia city leaders since its founding in the s it s less clear how the current strike and agreement will play out politically The collective memory of events sometimes isn t particularly that long-lasting but I do think that in terms of a big strike like this people do remember and there will be particular people who give her points for the way she held her line he explained And there will be others certainly within Council that will work very vigorously to make sure that she doesn t get a second term Both Clark and Ryan noted that the contract settlement still must be ratified in a vote by union members Given the discontent over the terms Boulware agreed to it could pass by only a narrow margin or even fail leading to a new round of negotiations with the city and providing the union leader with new ammunition to challenge Parker s stance on pay and benefits The ratification is going to be the deciding factor clearly and it ll give us particular insight as to whether he s sort of succumbing to the pressure from his membership or whether he was using this ratification strategically to send a message to the mayor that our members aren t going to accept this Clark commented The post Under pressure striking city union gives Parker a win appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY