Judge’s Order Disperses Strikers Blockading Philadelphia City Hall

Striking trash collectors, librarians and other city workers who were noisily blocking entrances to City Hall quickly dispersed Tuesday after a judge issued an order limiting pickets.

Less than 12 hours after the walkout over pay and other issues by more than 15,000 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees began Monday, Common Pleas Judge Alfred DiBona issued a temporary restraining order limiting picketing to two persons at each entrance.

The shouting and shoving that kept judges, juries and the public out on the sidewalks quickly diminished as strikers departed. Police said a judge was knocked down by pickets early Tuesday but was not hurt.

“This is part of life in the big city,” Mayor W. Wilson Goode said. “We are not immune from problems like this, now and then. It is our turn.”

Talks involving the union’s District Council 33, which represents 13,000 employees ranging from City Hall clerks to police dispatchers, and District Council 47, which represents 2,500 professional and technical workers, ended late Monday.

Contracts covering 1,250 mechanics, inspectors and maintenance workers of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s railroad commuter division also expired Tuesday but were extended on a day-to-day basis.