PHILADELPHIA — Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is putting it all on the line.

In a fiery news conference on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Parker made clear on Thursday that she wasn't ready to capitulate in negotiations to end the ongoing city workers strike and delivered a broadside at union president Greg Boulware, who three days earlier announced a work stoppage for the 9,000 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33.

"You can threaten me with not supporting me if I decide to run for reelection. You can call me a one-term mayor," Parker said. "But I'll tell you what I will not do. 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."

The "history books," she said, will judge her handling of the strike.

It was a notable escalation in rhetoric for Parker, who has embraced a strategy of attempting to undermine support for Boulware by appealing directly to DC 33 members, at one point implying union leadership was not giving them accurate information about her proposal.

"I'm not so sure that the actual members of District Council 33 are fully clear about what the city has put on the table," Parker said. "I wonder whether or not even the local leaders are familiar with the historic terms that the city of Philadelphia has put on the table."

Heading into this week, it wasn't clear what Parker's goals were as the contract deadline — and the threat of a strike — loomed. She could prioritize harmony with the city workers responsible for carrying out her agenda of "cleaning and greening" the city by agreeing to the union's demand for annual raises of 5% or more. Or she could stand firm on her own proposal, which includes raises of no more than 3%, protecting the city's financial resources but risking a strike that could undercut her popularity. (A recent Pew poll put Parker's approval rating at 63%.)

But at Thursday's news conference, Parker made clear she was choosing to fight. Behind her, workers — including apparent outside contractors union supporters heckled as scabs — made preparations in Eakins Oval for the city's high-profile July Fourth celebration, which will provide a major test of the city's ability to function during the strike.

And on the other side of the oval, DC 33 members and supporters shut down traffic in a protest complete with an inflatable "Scabby the Rat."

The union and the mayor's office were aware their events would conflict. Neither rescheduled, but a confrontation was averted because protesters didn't start heading Parker's way until after she wrapped up.

"The rhetoric has been ratcheted up," said Ryan Boyer, head of the politically powerful Philadelphia building trades unions and a key Parker ally in organized labor. "Cooler heads will prevail."

Clashing with DC 33 — the largest and lowest-paid union for city workers and the one that represent frontline workers like street pavers and trash collectors — involves particular risk for Parker, who campaigned in 2023 on bolstering basic city services and had already put in place programs like twice-weekly garbage collection in parts of the city before the strike began.

Those policies have helped fuel her popularity in office. Respondents to the Pew poll said the area in which they were most optimistic she could make a real difference were her "clean and green" goals.

But that sentiment could shift the longer the union stays on strike and heaps of trash baking in the July sun grow larger while picketers chant and carry signs blaming the "Parker piles" on her.

'One-term mayor'

No Philadelphia mayor has lost a reelection campaign since the adoption of the city's Home Rule Charter in 1952.

That includes Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr., who was reelected in 1987 after presiding over the MOVE bombing, and Mayor John F. Street, who won a second term in 2003 after an FBI listening device was discovered in his office.

Despite Parker's remark that the strike might make her a one-term mayor, it would be an uphill battle for anyone to unseat her, especially with the continued backing of Boyer, who said Thursday that she "still has the full support of the Philadelphia building trades."

The building trades and other organized labor groups like the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ were the backbone of Parker's 2023 mayoral campaign and have been allies during her administration, putting those unions in a difficult position as she clashes with DC 33.

Boyer said he supports both the mayor and DC 33 and rejected the suggestion that those things are "mutually exclusive."

"We want them to get a fair contract, and we know the mayor will do what's best," he said. "I just trust the process."

Boyer said he was confident in part because "the economics are not that far apart," referencing wages, which have been on the main issue in negotiations.

By the time negotiations broke off before the strike began, the gap between their annual wage increase proposals had come down from 6 percentage points to just over 2 percentage points.

In a sign that Boyer's prediction might be coming true, Boulware on Friday indicated his next contract proposal may include an adjustment his proposed wage increase schedule.

The mayor and the union leader

In an interview, Boulware dismissed the idea that personal animosity for the mayor had played a role in the contract standoff.

"It ain't about me and/or her," he said. Union members, he added, are "standing firm in unity and solidarity and advocating for this change."

But he's also contributed to the dynamic. Speaking at a Monday evening rally hours before calling for the strike to begin, Boulware criticized Parker for giving her staff large raises and herself a 9% pay bump — an inaccurate claim that has spread widely online and apparently irritates Parker, who has repeatedly mentioned it in public.

It's true that Parker has paid her top staffers substantially more than their predecessors made at the end of Mayor Jim Kenney's administration. But Parker in her first year took the same salary as Kenney and then received an automatic 3.14% cost-of-living adjustment.

She is now paid $269,708. Boulware's salary isn't public, but his predecessor was paid $282,000. Parker leaned in on that pay gap Thursday.

"Is it true that your [DC 33] leadership makes more than the mayor and she leads a city of 1.5 million people, plus it's the sixth largest city in the nation?" she said. "If we're going to tell the truth, tell the truth."

With her escalating attacks on Boulware, Parker is embracing the time-honored strike-busting tactic of seeking to divide rank-and-file members from their leaders, and her success will depend on whether she can win over the thousands of unionized city workers.

"To the members of District Council 33, I can't counter any misinformation that has been disseminated amongst your members," Parker said. "The only thing I can do as mayor of this city is to let you know that we value you in a meaningful way and put an offer on the table to affirm how much we value you."

---------

—Staff writers Beatrice Forman and Fallon Roth contributed to this article.

©2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.