After eight days of stinking garbage piles mounted along the streets of Philadelphia, the city has reached a tentative deal with the striking union workers to end the work stoppage.
Democratic Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s office and the striking workers made the deal after trash piled up for over a week as garbage collectors deserted their stations to strike on July 1 following the initial failed negotiations. Parker announced the tentative agreement Wednesday on X at 4:11AM, describing a new three-year contract that would increase the striking workers’ wages by 14% over the rest of Parker’s term, though one union leader has already expressed disappointment with the deal.
“The City of Philadelphia has to do better by its members, has to put the members and the workers who handle all the essential functions as a priority in this city,” Leader of the District Council 33 Greg Boulware told reporters early Wednesday in reference to the contract. “I don’t feel like that has been done.”
4th of July in Philadelphia. Trash on C Street and Allegheny Avenue #philly #philadelphia #hereweare #usa #breakingnews #strike #trash #4thofjuly #america #union pic.twitter.com/1tttS7SYZi
— The Philly Captain (@philly_captain) July 4, 2025
District Council 33 workers also posted that the strike is over on the union’s Facebook page this morning. The workers had been demanding a 15% salary increase over the next three years. A total of 9,000 DC 33 workers were on strike, including sanitation personnel, other blue-collar workers and some 911 operators in addition to the trash collectors, according to Parker’s office.
City officials originally counter-offered with a wage increase of 13.75% over the mayor’s four-year term and coined it the “largest one-term increase by any mayor in over 30 years.”
Though a deal has been tentatively reached, waste has still overtaken parts of the city, with maggots, rats and burned piles of garbage polluting the streets.
“The dumping is getting really out of control,” said one local on Monday, who has been chronicling the compounding city street trash on his YouTube channel called The Philly Captain.
“It’s disgusting,” one resident told Fox News Tuesday. “It’s making people sick.”
Another resident told CBS News on July 3 that the huge volumes of waste would likely attract rats.
Rhoanda Jones, a member of the striking District Council 33 said on June 30 that “if this is what we have to do to get our point across, to let the mayor know that we’re not playing, by all means let the trash pile up.”
Parker’s office and AFSCME did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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