5 hours ago
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If nobody stopped me, I could talk about urban sanitation for hours on end. Unfortunately, somebody (normally my wife) always stops me – usually in the first minute or two. It seems few people share my pathological fixation with littering and ways to optimise waste management.
Until recently, that is. Now every single resident of Philadelphia, my home town, is talking trash. Almost 10,000 city workers, members of the city’s largest blue-collar union, have been on strike since last Tuesday, affecting everything from libraries to public swimming pools. But the most visible signs of the strike are the huge piles of trash that are accumulating (nicknamed “Parker Piles” after mayor Cherelle Parker) because there is no garbage pickup. Did I mention it’s boiling hot? You can imagine the situation. The rats are in heaven; I am in hell.
While I may be a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, the stinky trash piles are obviously doing exactly what they are meant to be doing: reminding everyone that the people who keep society running are underpaid and overworked. The world had a brief moment of appreciation for essential workers during the pandemic, but, after everyone finished their nightly clapping, nothing changed, did it? The rich just got richer.
The mayor has said there simply isn’t enough money in the city’s budget to give the union what it wants, which is better benefits and a 5% wage increase a year for three years. Sanitation workers in Philadelphia make $39,000 to $42,000 (£29,000 to £31,000) a year. I am obviously no expert in the city’s budget, but it’s funny what there is money for. There is a cool $877m (£645m) for the Philadelphia police department. Which, by the way, is now spending $1.3m on a new uniform that is a slightly darker shade of blue. There is enough money to pay Parker the same sort of salary (about $270,000) as the mayor of the significantly larger New York City. There is enough money, according to analysis by the Philadelphia Inquirer last year, for 16 of Parker’s closest cabinet members to collectively earn $3.5m – $1m more than their peers earned under the previous mayor.
“Don’t tell me what you value,” Joe Biden used to say. “Show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value.” I hope Philadelphia starts valuing clean streets soon, because the current situation stinks.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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