MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
OK, to Philadelphia now, where blue-collar workers have reached a tentative contract with the city, ending an eight-day strike that has left overflowing dumpsters and trash piles across the city - all of it made worse and smellier by the summer heat. Tom MacDonald of member station WHYY has been covering the strike. Hey there, Tom.
TOM MACDONALD, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.
KELLY: It sounds like you'll have had quite a week already in Philly. The trash, I'm sure, was the most noticeable symbol of everything going on, but those sanitation workers - they weren't the only ones on strike.
MACDONALD: No, the sanitation workers were joined by 911 dispatchers, school crossing guards and people who issued building permits. They walked off the job July 1, seeking higher wages and the ability to live outside the city, which they can't do now. There were 9,000 workers total not doing those jobs. And of course, as you said, the trash piled up in some places. I went to one that was almost a half mile long - smelly, rodent-infested dump site.
KELLY: Ugh.
MACDONALD: The city did manage to pull off a concert and fireworks on July Fourth. Though, LL Cool J and Jazmine Sullivan - the headliners - they dropped out because of the strike.
KELLY: OK, so that's the backdrop. Then along comes this tentative agreement. Was that a surprise?
MACDONALD: Pretty much a shock, actually - there was a rally planned for this afternoon that was going to bring thousands of people to city hall. But before dawn this morning, the union said they had a three-year contract with 3% raises in each year and a one-time $1,500 bonus. But that's much less than the 32% the union was initially requesting from the city.
KELLY: Yeah, much less - 3% versus 32%. Why is the union settling for so much less than it was asking for?
MACDONALD: Well, the union head didn't explain why they agreed to this, that it was less than 1% above what the city was offering before the strike. He sent this message to his members.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GREG BOULWARE: So the union stood up and fought for you, and we did the best we could with the circumstances we had in front of us.
MACDONALD: With that cryptic statement, there were plenty of questions remaining, but the union officials have basically gone underground and aren't offering any answers.
KELLY: Meanwhile, the mayor of Philly is a first-term mayor, Cherelle Parker. This will have been a huge test for her. How did she handle it?
MACDONALD: The mayor drew a line in the sand saying the deal had to be affordable and good for both the city and the union. And even though many politicians were supporting the union, she didn't waver a bit.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHERELLE PARKER: I won't make any politically expedient decisions. You can threaten me with not supporting me if I decide to run for reelection. You can call me a one-term mayor. I will not put the fiscal stability of the city of Philadelphia in jeopardy for no one. If that means I'm a one-term mayor, then so be it.
KELLY: OK, a fired-up-sounding mayor there. Tom MacDonald, the union members still have to vote on this - right? - 9,000 of them. Does that mean - I mean, what's happening with the trash? Is that going anywhere until they vote?
MACDONALD: Oh, yeah. The trash was immediately started to be collected. The union members signed in at 7 a.m. this morning, went back to work, and they are cleaning up those piles of trash. That should be done by the weekend, curbside trash collection beginning on Monday. And I wouldn't worry too much about the voting on the contract. These people want to go back to work and get a paycheck.
KELLY: All righty (ph). WHYY's Tom MacDonald joining us from Philadelphia. Thanks for your reporting.
MACDONALD: Thank you very much.
(SOUNDBITE OF BUN B AND STATIK SELEKTAH SONG, "STILL TRILL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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