Why Philly's garbage strike won't end

• In the meantime, garbage bags are piling up, library branches remain closed and some city health services are curtailed.

State of play: The on-again, off-again contract negotiations are expected to resume Tuesday.

• The city recently updated its list of roughly 60 temporary trash drop-off locations while residential pickup remains suspended. But dumpsters are still overflowing.
• Meanwhile, the union of more than 9,000 members appears to be planning for a long strike: They're setting up a fundraising website and collecting non-monetary donations like food and water, per a social media post.

🏛️ Parker's side: Mayor Cherelle Parker's latest publicized offer is salary increases of 2.75% in the first year and 3% in the second and third, per CBS.

• The mayor argues higher raises would threaten the city's financial stability.
• While the mayor is calling the increases "historic," they're in line with past pay bumps.

🪧 DC33's side: Union president Greg Boulware is demanding annual 5% increases.

• Plus: The union is pushing for relaxed residency requirements — similar to those enjoyed by police employees — that would workers to move out of the city after a certain number of years.

By the numbers: DC33 is the largest and lowest-paid among the city's major unions.

• Members earn an average of $46,000, considered below a living wage in the city, per an analysis by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Zoom out: Parker is rejecting higher salary increases for DC33 on the heels of her newly passed city budget, in which she backed and won substantial business tax cuts.

• She's also moving forward with her $800 million housing plan.

Behind the scenes: Parker fashions herself as the ultimate City Hall decider, fiercely defending her decisions and calling out naysayers, doubters and critics.

• She's also forged alliances with the city's powerful unions and the business community. (But DC33 did not endorse Parker for mayor in 2023.)

Meanwhile, Boulware, who was elected DC33's leader last year, chose to call a strike on July 1, as soon as he legally could, despite calls from Parker to keep negotiations going.

Flashback: Parker may have set her own precedent when it comes to DC33's salary expectations.

• Last year, she penned a deal with DC33 for a one-year extension contract that included a 5% salary bump.

What they're saying: Parker is walking a political tightrope, Jay McCalla, a former city deputy managing director, tells Axios.

• She must appeal to the organized labor that backed her campaign but also to wealthy benefactors, some of whom may resent unions' ability to strike, McCalla says.

Marc Stier, director of the nonprofit Pennsylvania Policy Center, tells Axios that raising wages could help Parker fill the city's thousands of municipal job vacancies.

• "There's a market solution to not being able to hire more people — pay them more," says Stier.

What we're watching: The city's other three large municipal unions are watching DC33's negotiations closely.

• Their contracts expired on July 1, and if DC33 scores big, those unions could expect the same deal.