‘Hot Labor Summer’ hits Philadelphia as strikes and pickets pop up across the region

An ongoing wave of high-profile union activity — a “Hot Labor Summer” as some might say, using a catchphrase coined by California labor leaders — was visible across Philadelphia this week.

Picketing events across the city included striking television and film actors and writers and UPS workers continuing threats of a strike as their contract expiration nears.

“It sends a strong message to corporate America,” said Bill Hamilton, eastern region vice president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union that represents 340,000 UPS workers across the country.

“They’ve made hundreds of millions of dollars because of COVID. … The people that actually did the work in these warehouses and these other [workers] deserve to share in the profits,” Hamilton said.

Food service workers for Philadelphia Airport vendor OTG, who are members of Unite Here Local 274, were also out demonstrating Thursday because they have been working without a contract for more than five years.

And on Saturday, Starbucks workers are planning a rally in front of City Hall to launch their union’s “Kick Starbucks Off City Hall” campaign.

Nicole Izanec, president of SAG-AFTRA Philadelphia, said the commonality between these national labor movements is the growing disparity between workers income and corporate profits as well as management salaries.

“The list of people that are recognizing this is growing larger, and larger, and larger … they’re just getting stronger, and they’re not going away any time soon,” she said.

President Joe Biden seemed to express a similar observation when he briefly visited Philadelphia on Thursday, though he also made sure to note that there are “good folks” on Wall Street.

“I got tired of trickle-down economics. I’ve never been a big fan,” Biden said. “I like the wealthy to be able to be wealthy. But … the mere fact they do well doesn’t mean that everybody else does well.”

UPS workers have been holding demonstrations throughout the city and in the suburbs, including a rally Thursday on Oregon Avenue in South Philadelphia. Labor-supporting organizations including the AFL-CIO Philadelphia Council also have been canvassing the neighborhood surrounding that location, council president Daniel Bauder said, which will continue over the weekend.

The Teamsters voted to authorize a strike if they haven’t reached an agreement with management when their contract expires Aug. 1.

A strike seemed increasingly likely earlier this month, when both UPS and the union accused the other of walking away from negotiations. Union leadership has said they want to see in increase in pay for part-time employees, which has become a sticking point in negotiations.

UPS announced Wednesday that negotiations would resume Monday.

“We are prepared to increase our industry-leading pay and benefits but need to work quickly to finalize a fair deal that provides certainty for our customers, our employees and businesses across the country,” it said.

“If they’re coming back to the table Monday, we’re hopeful that means they’ve come back to a sense of reality,” Hamilton said.

SAG-AFTRA, including multiple celebrity members, rallied in Love Park on Thursday, a week into their strike after failing to reach a contract agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The union has been forming picket lines across the country, where members have emphasized that the majority of working actors make a middle-class living or less.

The actors are demanding new framework for how performers are compensated when their work runs on streaming platforms and safeguards for how artificial intelligence is used. The producers group has argued that SAG-AFTRA has mischaracterized their contract negotiations.

Around 100 TV and movie actors gathered at the Center City park, joined by local members of the Writers Guild of America, who have been on strike since May, as well as supporters from other local unions and elected officials. Hollywood’s writers and actors haven’t gone on strike simultaneously since the 1960s.

“One of the most exciting things is to realize how not alone you are in your fight,” local SAG-AFRA leader Izanec said.

Like the actors and UPS employees, food service workers at unionized Starbucks locations who will be rallying in Philadelphia on Saturday are part of a national movement.

Starbucks Workers United represents baristas at eight cafes in the city. Locally, they’re calling on Philadelphia City Council to select a new vendor for the coffee shop at Dilworth Park because of Starbucks management’s alleged union-busting behaviors.

In a petition launched last month, the union noted that Council had passed a resolution in 2022 supporting baristas’ unionization efforts.

Starbucks doesn’t own the site, but its products are incorporated there by Brulee Catering, which runs the Dilworth Park cafe.

Starbucks spokesperson Andrew Trull said the union hasn’t demanded closure of a Starbucks store before this. (The union has said it would prefer for the store to stay open and provide products from a local, unionized business.)

The Philly baristas will be joined by a group of Starbucks Workers United members who have been on a 13-city bus tour, including a visit to Pittsburgh this week.

Starbucks has faced hundreds of unfair labor practice charges throughout the U.S., including in Philadelphia, and none of the more than 300 unionized cafes has reached a contract with the company.

Trull said that the company wants to see progress toward first contracts at unionized stores and that there has been a full day of bargaining with the 10th Street and Market Street store in Philadelphia.

Other locations haven’t met yet due in part to disagreements over whether to bargain in person, which Starbucks has insisted on, or with some employees joining by video.

“Workers United should demonstrate the same commitment to bargaining as they do to rallies and now a multicity bus tour,” Trull said.

The Unite Here members employed by OTG’s airport restaurants have also been working without a contract — they previously had one, but it expired more than five years ago.

At their protest this week, they said they’re still waiting on more than $340,000 of back pay under terms of a contract they ratified last year after a “handshake agreement” with management, which the union says OTG later acknowledged in emails as well.

OTG management has said that here was no contract agreement last year and that it wants to continue negotiations.

Discussing the national and local contract struggles taking the spotlight this summer, Bauder, of the AFL-CIO Philadelphia Council, said he worries that corporations are going to double down on union opposition.

But, he added, there have also been some fruitful contract negotiations recently, as well as strikes that ended in a contract for local workers.

“I think that there is a better way, and that some employers are wise to it,” Bauder said.