Francis Ryan is a professor of labor history and industrial relations at Rutgers University. He could tell you about any point in Philadelphia’s labor history — from their inception in the 1790s, to the peak of union membership in the 1970s.

Ryan literally wrote the book — AFSCME’s Philadelphia Story: Municipal Workers and Urban Power in the Twentieth Century — on Philadelphia’s unions. Labor also runs in his veins: His family tree includes members of the city’s first-ever union, the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers. He himself was a teamster — and is now a member of the American Federation of Teachers — but before all that, Ryan was a 16-year-old living in the Great Northeast during the last big sanitation workers’ strike, in 1986.

So, when he looks back at the week-long, now-over AFSCME DC 33 strike, he sees similarities, but also differences — especially in the attitudes of Philadelphia residents.

How 2025 was like 1986

“I lived in Northeast Philly, and I took the L down to see a friend. He lived right off of Front Street,” says Ryan, “I just remember that there were some abandoned lots on a street called Hope street, and they were just loaded with trash. I remember the smell, for one thing.” Like the summer of 2025, the summer of 1986, was hot and sticky, and the only smell worse than a giant pile of garbage is a giant pile of hot and steaming garbage. 

Thirty years ago, the strike lasted three weeks, during which time, all sorts of unforeseen problems began to present themselves. The heat brought rainstorms that washed trash into waterways. There were accidental and intentional trash fires — both incredibly dangerous. Then, there were the rats, “running around on the street,” says Ryan, “Rats are there anyway, but they’re not always as bold as they are in a trash strike.” Little pink noses would poke out between black and white trash bags and skitter down the streets in broad daylight, the only Philadelphia residents enjoying this Wet Hot American Summer.

“Whatever hope the labor movement will have in the next few decades will also have to be based on the hopes of young people.” — Francis Ryan, Rutgers University

And, just like this time around, the strike was, “very dramatic,” Ryan says. Except back then, the drama came from another source: “You had a mayor, Wilson Goode, who was the first Black mayor of Philadelphia, and he was in negotiations with District Council 33, which was led by a man named Earl Stout. And they really did not like each other,” a state of affairs that “probably added to the strike’s length. Many of the workers themselves started to question why they were on strike by the end of the second week. The City had granted much of the wage demands, but Earl Stout continued to insist on more direct cash into the health fund the union oversaw.”

The big difference: Philadelphians’ attitudes

In 1986, the strike’s angriest voices came from regular non-striking residents. “Ultimately, I don’t think the people of Philadelphia really supported it, you know? Most sanitation strikes don’t gain a lot of support. They’re very nasty. Residents are very sympathetic to sanitation workers but there’s a limit to what that support is,” he says.

Ryan believes that back then, most residents would probably have been in favor of better wages and health benefits for District 33 workers — which were the two big demands of the union. But when the argument over those demands turned from policy to protest, support was harder to come by.

This might sound strange to anyone who paid attention to the DC 33 strike. Anywhere you looked, but especially on social media, Philadelphians seemed to support the workers’ cause. Everyone still complained about the trash piling up. Some cast suspicion on Adam Thiel’s repeated insistence that the “water is safe to drink”. But more significantly, they seemed to place the blame at the hands of the municipal government and Mayor, rather than the striking workers. So why was this? What changed in the past 40 years?

“The polls show that most Americans, given the choice, would join a union.” — Francis Ryan

Fingers have pointed to Mayor Cherelle Parker, already beleaguered by her failed bid to bring a 76ers stadium to Center City and stagnation in Kensington. But Ryan sources the mood to a totally different place — the game-changing transformation of information sharing itself.

“The reason is social media,” he says, adding, “Since the pandemic, there has been a lot of emphasis on the narrative of essential workers, and making sure that they’re treated well. We know from social media, that often, that’s not the case. A lot of times, people who work in the healthcare industry or in the food industry, they’re not compensated well.”

This is especially true, in Ryan’s opinion, with young people.

“Especially the younger generation of people who are watching this, they see there is so much wealth disparity in this country. There is so much wealth concentrated at the very top … The potential is there for a new turning towards trade unions as institutions that might help level the playing field. The polls show that most Americans, given the choice, would join a union. It’s just legally — it’s difficult. There’s so many obstacles that companies put up to try to avoid unionization. Young people are watching this, and there’s a potential for an upsurge.”

“I hope that all the people, especially the young people who participated in or witnessed the strike … understood that the struggles of other people can also be struggles that they share.” — Francis Ryan

He continues, “That’s what happened in the 1930s — the biggest upsurge in union organizing in the country’s history. And it’s sometimes forgotten that it really was a youth movement. These were young workers in their 20s, young mothers and fathers. Whatever hope the labor movement will have in the next few decades will also have to be based on the hopes of young people.”

And now that the DC 33 strike is over?

Considering mid-strike drama, the event’s end felt anticlimactic. The Mayor’s tearfully joyful press conference belied union leadership’s disappointment. Still, the outcome was not without precedent. The 1986 strike ended similarly, with “Some pay increases, but the union did not get the health benefits that they were demanding,” says Ryan.

His assessment: “There’s some frustration right now, but what I hope to see is that the members of DC 33 know that they have a fighting organization that has their back. Labor history shows the struggle for better wages and the struggle for dignity are something that can only really be understood in the long term. It’s a gradual process.”

As for the onlookers, those who outwardly hoped for a big win for labor? “I hope that all the people, especially the young people who participated in or witnessed the strike, got an education. That they understood that the struggles of other people can also be struggles that they share. And that together they might be able to build new kinds of policies and new kinds of solidarities that help everyone.”

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