Returning Strikers Restore Services for Philadelphians
City museums, pools, libraries and offices reopened Monday after a 20-day strike collapsed and municipal employees returned to work without a contract.
Garbage haulers, who began working Saturday under court order, continued to remove more than 40,000 tons of trash that had piled up during the strike.
The rest of District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees voted Sunday to return to work. But many were not happy.
“Everybody who was out striking got a lot of suffering for nothing,” Ray Weekley, an airport employee, said.
Some blamed District Council 47, the white-collar union whose members crossed picket lines, and the judge’s order that forced trash collectors back to work with threats of fines and firings.
Mayor W. Wilson Goode said the local has the city’s “last and best offer”--a 10% wage increase in a two-year contract, the same terms that District Council 47 accepted.
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