🗳️ DC 33’s deal is done | Morning Newsletter
And South Jersey detention facility criticized.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Good morning, Philly.
AFSCME District Council 33 members voted to approve a three-year contract agreement with the city following the union’s eight-day strike earlier this month. Meanwhile, it’s not just your block: Recycling collection has fallen “a few days behind” as Philadelphia prioritizes trash removal.
And decried as the “Garden State Gulag,” the proposed facility to house undocumented immigrants at a Burlington County military base faces continued criticism.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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With a nearly 65% majority, members of DC 33 have voted to approve the tentative contract agreement union leaders negotiated with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration earlier this month.
🗳️ The vote eliminates the possibility of a DC 33 strike for the remainder of their contract — so, no more “Parker piles” for at least three years.
🪧 The results don’t necessarily signify workers like the contract. But faced with the choice of approving it, or returning to the picket line in the hopes of negotiating something better? “The momentum of the strike that we saw earlier in the month has gone away,” a labor historian told The Inquirer.
🗑️ The Department of Sanitation is still catching up from the eight-day strike and prioritizing trash collection over recycling. If your cardboard boxes and empty seltzer cans (like mine) still haven’t been picked up, hang tight — workers will get to it as soon as they can, the city says.
After Friday’s news that President Donald Trump’s administration plans to hold immigration detainees at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey Democrats in Congress quickly condemned the decision “in the strongest possible terms.”
Among them was U.S. Rep. Herb Conaway Jr., whose Burlington County district includes the military base. On Monday, he called the detention center the “Garden State Gulag,” akin to the controversial new detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The base has previously housed evacuated Afghan war allies and their families, as well as evacuees who arrived after a Haiti earthquake and refugees of the Kosovo War. It has never before been used for mass detention.
In other Jersey news: A minor early-morning earthquake on Monday centered in North Jersey rattled some residents. Its effects were reported as far south as the suburbs of Baltimore.
What you should know today
The trial began Monday for two men involved in a fatal Lower Merion burglary last year that prosecutors say was the result of an address mix-up.
A 27-year-old man who allegedly appears in a social media video attacking people who were asleep on the sidewalk in Center City has been arrested, police said Monday.
Trump demanded that the Washington Commanders — the NFL team owned by the 76ers’ Josh Harris — revert to their previous name, threatening to block a stadium deal if they don’t.
Hundreds of gallons of gasoline from a tanker spilled Sunday at a Wawa in Wildwood, causing a temporary store shutdown.
A single, shuttered gas pump outside a quaint country store in Potter County will reopen following an Inquirer report on the closure’s blow to budding tourism.
Across the United States, new home listings are down. But the Philly region is bucking the trend.
Playing in Arkansas was brutal for Dick Allen. Decades later, his son returned to honor the Phillies great’s long journey to the Hall of Fame.
Upper Darby native Tina Fey is producing the movie version of John Proctor is the Villain, the Tony-nominated Broadway play inspired by The Crucible.
🧠 Trivia time
A national historical park in the region is seeking a new tenant for the Kennedy Supplee Mansion, a Victorian-era building that has sat vacant on its property for nearly two decades. Which park is it?
A) Independence
B) Valley Forge
C) First State
D) Morristown
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
⚾ Bummed to see: The analog clock in Citizens Bank Park’s center field has been replaced by an ad.
🍸 Visiting: The city’s best rooftop bars and restaurants.
🎃 Reminding you all: Seriously, it’s too soon for PSLs.
⚽ Wishing: Union phenom Cavan Sullivan luck in Manchester.
⚠️ Considering: This proposal to shift federal policy to save more American lives.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: French restaurant in Center City
LUMP YO
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Diane Donato, who solved Monday’s anagram: Lublin. Through Philly’s Portal in the City Hall courtyard, chess players on Sunday faced off from thousands of miles away, including in the Polish city.
Photo of the day
🐝 One last buzzy thing: Did you know? Bees have some ways to cope with a warming Earth, such as “using fewer but harder wing beats” to keep their body temperature down, a recent study found. Still, researchers fear for their future.
Despite the heat, this week of sunny forecasts has me planning more time in nature. Whether you’re doing the same or taking refuge indoors, have a good one.
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