PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Negotiations resumed Wednesday on the second day of a strike by nearly 10,000 city workers in Philadelphia, while a judge ordered some emergency service dispatchers and essential water department employees back to work.
“We are still very, very far apart. All this, it’s not all about money, but it’s largely about money, but there are a lot of work rule situations that we still have not worked through,” Greg Boulware, District 33 president, said Wednesday morning outside a designated trash drop-off site along the Delaware River.
The union represents many of the city’s blue-collar workers, from trash collectors to clerks to security guards. Police and firefighters are not on strike.
The city has suspended residential trash collection, closed some city pools and libraries and shortened recreation center hours. However, Mayor Cherelle Parker, a Democrat, has vowed to keep the city running and not disturb the Fourth of July celebrations already under way in the nation’s birthplace.
A trickle of people arriving Wednesday morning at a designated trash drop-off site found themselves in the center of the labor dispute, as they encountered a few dozen striking workers lining the gates. Some turned around, while others – sometimes guided by police - drove through an open gate to deposit bags in a single idle trash truck.
“I really didn’t want to pass the picket line,” said Steven Connell, 65, who was dropping off trash for himself and an elderly neighbor. He had expected a clear path and many more receptacles.
“We’re kind of conflicted,” Connell said. “I didn’t think it would be like this.”
City leaders at a Wednesday afternoon press conference warned striking employees against vandalism, intimidation or other mischief.
Parker, speaking to city residents, promised that “we will make it through this storm together.”
The city has offered a three-year contract with annual raises of about 3%, which the union said amounts to little more than $1,000 after taxes for members making $46,000 a year on average, Boulware said. The union also wants some flexibility on the city residency requirement.
District Council 33 is the largest of four major unions representing city workers.
Parker has said the city has “put its best offer on the table.” She stressed that the effective 13% pay hike over her four-year term -- including last year’s 5% bump – along with a fifth step on the pay scale would be the best contract the union has seen in decades.
“The proposal that they're offering just does not meet the needs of our members to live inside this city,” Boulware said Wednesday. “It’s very little money for anybody.”
Common Pleas Court Judge Sierra Thomas-Street granted the city an injunction Tuesday ordering 237 out of 325 workers at the city’s 911 call center back to work because their absence creates a “clear and present danger.” The order does not prevent those workers — 32 fire dispatchers, five supervisors and 200 police dispatchers — from participating in the strike during off-duty hours.
The judge also ordered some water department workers back to the job because they're essential to ensuring fresh, clean drinking water.
In November, the city transit system averted a strike when the parties agreed to a one-year contract with 5% raises.
A District Council 33 trash strike in the summer of 1986 left the city without trash pickup for three weeks, leading trash to pile up on streets, alleyways and drop-off sites. Connell lived through it and fears a repeat.
“It’s summertime, it’s 150 degrees, it’s going to get ugly” if it goes that long, he said.
“They had mounds of trash up around American and Allegheny (streets),” he said. “You could smell it for blocks.”
Philadelphia is not the only area dealing with a strike. Trash also piled up across more than a dozen Massachusetts towns Tuesday after 400 waste collection workers went on strike ahead of the July 4 holiday, according to news reports.
The contract with waste removal company Republic Services and Teamsters Local 25 union expired on Monday night. The union said workers are pushing for better wages, benefits, working conditions and paid time off.
Associated Press journalist Leah Willingham in Boston contributed to this report.
Trash sits on sidewalk along Cumberland and Fairhill Street on Tuesday, July 1, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pa. (Alejandro A Alvarez /The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
Philadelphia municipal workers, AFSCME District Council 33, strike outside police headquarters on Tuesday, July 1, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pa. (Alejandro A Alvarez /The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Ultra-conservative José Antonio Kast secured a thumping victory in Chile’s presidential runoff election Sunday, defeating the candidate of the leftist governing coalition and setting the stage for the country’s most right-wing government in 35 years of democracy.
With over 95% of the vote counted, Kast won more than 58% of the votes as Chilean voters overwhelmingly embraced his pledge to crack down on increased crime, deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants without legal status and revive the sluggish economy of one of Latin America’s most stable and prosperous nations.
His challenger, communist candidate Jeannette Jara who served as leftist President Gabriel Boric’s popular labor minister, had just over 41% support.
“Democracy spoke loud and clear,” Jara wrote on social media, saying that she called Kast to concede defeat and congratulate him on his successful campaign.
Kast’s supporters erupted into cheers in the street, shouting his name and honking car horns.
His campaign spokesman, Arturo Squella, declared victory from the party headquarters in Chile's capital of Santiago.
“We are very proud of the work we’ve done,” he told reporters. “We feel very responsible for this tremendous challenge of taking charge of the crises that Chile is going through.”
Kast’s election represents the latest in a string of votes that have turfed out incumbent governments across Latin America, vaulting mainly right-wing leaders to power from Argentina to Bolivia.
On the surface, the two candidates in this tense presidential runoff could not have been more different, fundamentally disagreeing on weighty matters of the economy, social issues and the very purpose of government.
A lifelong member of Chile’s Communist Party who pioneered significant social welfare measures in Boric’s government and hails from a working-class family that protested against the 1973-1990 military dictatorship, Jara was a dramatic foil to her rival.
Kast, in contrast, is a devout Catholic and father of nine whose German-born father was a registered member of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party and whose brother served in the dictatorship. He had previously struggled to win over moderate voters in two failed presidential bids.
His moral conservatism, including fierce opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion without exception, had been rejected by many in the increasingly socially liberal country. The admiration he has expressed for the bloody military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet also sparked widespread condemnation in his campaign against President Boric four years ago.
But in the past few years, fears about uncontrolled migration and organized crime have roiled the country. Enthusiasm for a hardline approach to crime spread, dominating the election and boosting Kast's law-and-order platform.
Supporters hold a portrait of Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate of the opposition Republican Party, after results show hime leading in the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate of the opposition Republican Party, celebrate preliminary results after polls closed for a presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Supporters react to early results at the campaign headquarters of Jeannette Jara, presidential candidate of the ruling Unity for Chile coalition, in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Jeannette Jara, presidential candidate of the ruling Unity for Chile coalition, speaks after voting during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Supporters of Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate of the opposition Republican Party, celebrate preliminary results after polls closed for a presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate for the Republican Party, waves after voting in the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Voters arrive to a polling stating during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Jeannette Jara, presidential candidate of the ruling Unity for Chile coalition, shows her ballot during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate for the Republican Party, prepares to vote during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate for the Republican Party, arrives to vote during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A voter casts his ballot during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Luis Soto prepares to vote in the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Richard Ferreira, a Venezuelan residing in Chile, waits for polls to open during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Police guard the Mapocho station polling station during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Presidential candidate Jeannette Jara of the Unidad por Chile coalition addresses supporters during a rally ahead of the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A man cycles past campaign ads for presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast and Argentina's President Javier Milei reading in Spanish "Our future is in danger" ahead of the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast of the Republican Party addresses supporters, from behind a protective glass panel, during a rally ahead of the runoff election in Temuco, Chile, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
A campaign banner reads in Spanish "Neither Jara nor Kast will make our lives better, don't vote, rebel and fight" ahead of the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Presidential candidates Jose Antonio Kast of the Republican Party and Jeannette Jara of the Unity for Chile coalition shake hands during a debate ahead of runoff elections in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
