A small group of activists demonstrated support for striking municipal workers — and frustration with Mayor Cherelle Parker — by dumping trash inside City Hall on Monday morning. The protest led to three arrests and pending charges of defiant trespassing, police confirmed.
Activists with Sunrise Movement Philadelphia, a regional chapter of the youth environmental organization, marched into the first floor of City Hall with a wagon of trash bags. According to the group’s Instagram page, the litter was collected from Piccoli Playground, one of the 60 temporary garbage drop-off sites the city created while regular trash collection is suspended.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33, which represents 9,000 city workers, including garbage collectors, has been on strike for higher wages since July 1. In the week since, trash has piled up at the city’s drop-off sites, the headliners to the city’s Fourth of July concert backed out to support the union workers, and Parker vowed to ensure Philly’s fiscal stability — even if that meant she becomes a one-term mayor…