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U.S.|Trash Overflows in Philadelphia as City Workers’ Strike Enters Second Week
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/us/trash-philadelphia-strike.html
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Pungent odors permeate the City of Brotherly Love as a contract impasse between the city and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees continues.
July 8, 2025, 7:06 p.m. ET
In Philadelphia, a city that proudly displays its grit, from the “Rocky” steps to the Liberty Bell, an unwelcome sight is propagating this summer: mountains of trash.
A strike by Philadelphia’s largest public sector union entered its second week on Tuesday, disrupting garbage collection and a host of other services in the nation’s sixth most populous city.
The contract impasse between the city and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33, which represents roughly 9,000 municipal employees, including 1,000 sanitation workers, has forced municipal agencies to scale back programs.
Others have been suspended by the city, which closed some of its public libraries and warned of longer repair times should there be a water main break or street cave-in.
But little could prepare people for the stench of overflowing garbage, much of it concentrated around more than 60 temporary collection sites set up by the city for residents to drop off up to eight bags per household on their usual scheduled pickup day.
Frankie Olivieri, the owner of Pat’s King of Steaks, one of Philadelphia’s venerable cheese steak purveyors, said in an interview on Tuesday that the odor was so overpowering that he had gone to the beach for some fresh air.
