PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The City of Philadelphia has reached a tentative agreement with its largest union, District Council 33, representing blue-collar workers. The three-year deal includes raises and new benefits.
The agreement, reached after a marathon bargaining session, includes:
- A 2.5% pay raise in the first year
- A 3.25% pay raise in the second year
- A 3.25% pay raise in the third year
- A one-time payment of $1,200 for all workers
- An increase in payments to the health care fund, from $1,194 to $1,500 per month for each employee
- Four weeks of parental leave
- An increase in pay grade for sanitation workers, which will mean about $1,000 more each year.
Mayor Jim Kenney says it’s a fair and affordable contract, and he wants to send a message that he respects them and the job they do.
"They’ve been out in the street picking up trash being short-handed sometimes because people were sick and feeling, in the past before our administration, that they had been disrespected by past administrations and wanted to get the respect that other public servants have," said Kenney. "We tried to do that."
Kenney said these workers have earned the raises, particularly working through COVID-19.
"District Council 33, but especially our sanitation workers, have gone through a lot - as we all have - in the past, almost, two years now," he said.
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Sanitation workers stayed on the job, as essential workers through the pandemic, struggling to keep up with the large increase in residential trash generated by stay-at-home rules.
The mayor said he was confident the city could afford the new deal.
"We did our best and we think we have a fair contract, an affordable contract. We won’t have any disruptions in our trash collection," Kenney said.
"I’m hoping they understand how much I as a person respect them and what they do."
The mayor didn’t have a cost estimate, but noted $25 million had been set aside in the budget for new contracts.
It may become a bellwether for District Council 47, the white collar workers union which is working under a contract extension while negotiations continue.
The police and fire contracts are decided by arbitration.