Strike-Bound Philadelphia Uses Empty Lots as Dumps

Mayor W. Wilson Goode invoked an emergency plan for trash collection Tuesday, as the larger of two municipal unions broke off talks in an eight-day strike that has left tons of garbage in the streets.

The nation’s fifth-largest city designated 17 empty lots where Philadelphia’s 1.7 million residents may leave household trash in leakproof bags.

Since the strike began July 1, an estimated 22,400 tons of trash have gone uncollected and the odor has grown worse in the current heat wave. Tuesday was the fourth consecutive day of temperatures in the 90s.

“We’re asking people to cooperate, not to put trash in front of their houses or street corners,” said Goode. “This is a time to pull together.”

Emergency Managers Used

The strike, involving about 14,000 blue-collar and white-collar workers, also has closed city museums, libraries, most city offices and many recreation centers and pools. Police have been put on 12-hour shifts, and small management crews have manned sanitation plants to keep the water system running smoothly.

City police will guard the trash lots, Goode said, to make sure that pickets do not interfere and to prevent dumping by businesses and owners of large apartment buildings, who must hire private haulers.

The 6,000 trash collectors are among about 12,000 blue-collar members of District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, who struck July 1 with AFSCME District Council 47, which represents about 2,000 white-collar professionals and technicians.

Talks with District 33 collapsed before dawn Tuesday, after 16 hours of negotiating. The main stumbling block, participants said, was union president Earl Stouts’ demand that the city immediately stop subcontracting for work that he claims union members should be doing.

Other Talks Suspended

“That demand is something that is impossible to meet now or in the future,” Goode said.

Separate talks with District Council 47 were in recess, and no new bargaining session had been scheduled.

The mayor said that sanitation in the city remained good, but that he was prepared to go to court for a back-to-work order if a public-health risk develops.

In the meantime, sidewalk trash containers were overflowing and garbage spilled over from packed trash bins that were filled too quickly for private haulers to remove.

“It’s a mess,” said Terri Lee, who lives in a city-owned housing project in west Philadelphia.