At a Workers World Party conference on Nov. 14, 1993, Sam Marcy commented: “There are many industries in which unionized workers can defeat their own bosses. Why don’t they win consistently? Because of the intervention of the capitalist state. The state intervenes, presumably as an umpire but in reality, as an ally of the bosses and bankers. That militates against strong victories by the workers.” (Workers World, “Where the global class struggle is going” by Sam Marcy, Nov. 25, 1993)

Marcy’s argument still holds true, with the nine-day Philadelphia city workers’ strike as the latest example.

Over 9,000 Philadelphia blue-color municipal workers went out on strike for the first time in 40 years on July 1. The majority of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33 members are Black and make an average of $46,000 per year. They are among the lowest-paid workers in similar jobs of any other large city in the U.S.

AFSCME DC 33 represents blue-collar workers from 15 separate union locals in multiple city divisions, including streets and sanitation, recreation, water, finance, health, parking, 911 call centers, school crossing guards, library maintenance, the Philadelphia Housing Authority, the Philadelphia International Airport and some staff at city jail facilities.

Elected in 2023, Cherelle Parker, while the first Black woman mayor in Philadelphia history, is openly oriented to big business interests. During the strike, mountains of uncollected garbage grew at official city collection sites and in neighborhoods around the city — labeled “Parker Piles” by the union. “If you can’t stand the smell, blame it on Cherelle!” was a popular chant on the picket lines. 

In contrast to the mayor’s refusal to give liveable wages to the city’s lowest-paid workers, Parker gave substantial raises to her staff, which increased from 39 to 113 positions last year, with a 151% spending increase for personnel costs, with the average staffer getting a 16% pay increase over the previous year.

Strong solidarity with strikers

Actions in support of the striking workers were held all over the city, from protests outside municipal buildings to shutdowns of scab trash collection sites to libraries and health centers.

Workers’ World Party comrades and many members of other unions, community groups and people on the left joined the picket lines and provided food, water, sunscreen and other necessities. Librarians in DC33’s white-color sister union AFSCME DC47 refused to cross the picket lines, losing pay for every day marked AWOL. The two headline acts at the city’s July 4th celebrations — LL Cool J and Jazmine Sullivan — refused to cross the picket lines, cancelling their performances! 

Pennsylvania political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal was able to speak by phone to a DC33 rally on July 4. On July 5, marchers from a Free Mumia rally stopped at a library in West Philadelphia to express solidarity with DC33 picketers there and sang “Solidarity Forever” with strikers. 

The union agreed to a contract with the city on July 9 that includes: a 3% wage increase for each of the next three years; a $1,500 bonus in year one; a “5th step” increase of 2%, which half of the DC 33 members will receive immediately.  The rest will receive it by the end of the contract. On July 21, the DC33 membership ratified the agreement — 1,535 votes for to 838 votes against.

The contract for the city’s 7,000 white-collar workers in DC47 resulted in a similar agreement.

Anti-worker injunctions

Many activists were critical of the union leadership for ending the strike with an agreement that failed to win the 8% yearly wage increase the union was demanding. But the fact that DC33 members had not walked picket lines in 40 years meant they and their leadership had little experience in how to wage a union struggle to a successful end. And most young supporters who joined the picket lines had little experience in union struggles, although their energy in organizing food, water and other support was commendable.

In a July 10 interview on #PhillyFAMETV, DC33 President Greg Boulware said: “The city was trying to pick us apart with injunctions, the first one literally 30 seconds after we called the strike, for members of the water department that were forced to go back to work. 

“We’ve got members of the 911 department that were forced back to work. The city filed injunctions saying they had issues with picketing and protests at many locations, saying ‘they had too many people out there and they were being unruly.’ … We had four injunctions at that point and they continued to keep coming.”

Judge Sierra Thomas-Street issued a list of rules that anyone joining the union’s picket lines had to follow: “Blocking or obstructing access to buildings or work sites was prohibited. Threatening, harassing, following, intimidating, photographing or interfering with any city employees at facilities was prohibited. Picket lines had to be eight people or less, and people striking needed to stay at least 10 feet away from entrances.” (WPHL Philadelphia, July 1) 

The intervention of the state through court injunctions, enforced by cops, was a major reason why DC33 leadership ended the strike.

Courts are the legal arm of the state. The judges who order anti-labor injunctions are the same judges who have kept Mumia Abu-Jamal incarcerated since 1981 for a crime he didn’t commit. They are part of a judicial system responsible for the mass incarceration of Black, Latine, Asian, Indigenous, immigrants and poor white workers. They work in conjunction with the police and the prosecutor’s office “as an ally of the bosses and bankers,” in the words of Comrade Marcy.

Mayor Parker is not the first Philly mayor to use injunctions against a city workers’ strike. Injunctions were also used against 13,000 city workers the last time DC33 went out on strike nearly 40 years ago. In 1986, Mayor Wilson Goode broke a 20-day DC33 strike by seeking an injunction against it, then pressing successfully for a contempt citation when the sanitation workers refused to obey a court order to go back to work. When workers still refused, Goode threatened to dismiss any workers who refused to return. 

These were the same court officials that okayed Mayor Goode’s murderous bombing of MOVE in May 1985 that killed 11 people, including children.

Labor solidarity can defeat injunctions 

But labor solidarity in Philadelphia has a history of defending workers’ strikes. During the 1998 Transit Workers Union Local 234 strike against the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA), executives threatened to hire scab replacements. In response, the Philadelphia AFL-CIO pledged to call a general strike and organize a march of a million labor unionists if scabs took over strikers’ jobs. SEPTA officials quickly backed down, and the union won a new contract.

Another example: In 2014, the state threatened to cancel its collective bargaining agreement with the Philadelphia public school teachers’ union. Over 50 labor union leaders signed a protest letter and followed up with a meeting on walking off the job — a general strike — if the state went ahead. The state backed down.

Those struggles showed what strong labor solidarity can do.

Back on June 30, at a rally on the eve of the July 1 strike, the presidents of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, TWU 234 , 1199C hospital workers and the AFL-CIO Labor Council pledged their solidarity with DC33 workers. That solidarity could have been called upon to strengthen the strike’s backbone in contesting the injunctions. 

It’s noteworthy that labor contracts for thousands of other Philadelphia workers are also coming up in the next six months. Some 94% of over 14,000 teachers in the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers have voted to strike if their demands are not met by Aug 31. And 5,000 members of TWU Local 234 might go out on Nov. 7 when their contract expires.

The shameful conduct of city officials during the DC33 strike will have ramifications on those contract struggles too. If state intervention is threatened again, will other unions consider organizing solidarity actions, up to a general strike? If so, there are now thousands of strike-experienced union members and community activists ready to act in solidarity if called upon.

Workers united will never be defeated!