Philadelphia’s largest blue-collar union’s strike has left the city’s residents without sanitation and trash pickup services for three days now.
Along with the piles of trash that have been accumulating on sidewalks and the temporary dropoff locations across the city, entrepreneurs offering to pick up people’s trash — at varying costs — have popped up on social media platforms.
Terrill Haigler, the former municipal sanitation worker turned clean streets advocate and Philly social media personality better known as “Ya Fav Trashman,” was among those who offered this service, using the truck he bought earlier this year.
On Monday, Haigler posted a video on Instagram with his thoughts about the potential strike if a deal wasn’t reached by midnight. He gave his support to every DC33 municipal worker, saying “give ‘em that money.”
When the strike began, the Instagram account @wildtuna posted info on Haigler’s trash pickup services, which was $15 a house.
The post got plenty of feedback — it has over 450 comments as of Thursday afternoon — prompting Haigler to post a response during the first day of the strike.
Haigler said he’s been called a scab, a phony and a fake, and been accused of crossing the picket line and profiting off the strike.
There have also been messages of support. Feedback has been “right down the middle,” Haigler said.
“I have 50 percent of people saying they hate me now and I’m being called all kinds of names,” he said. “Then I have people who are sending me encouraging messages and say, ‘Hey, you don’t work for the union, you don’t work for the city, you’re not taking city money and our contract to pick it up. You’ve been doing this as a private business since 2021, so why not make money?’ “
Unlike many of the people who’ve emerged offering private trash pickup this week, this has been Haigler’s daily grind for years.
“This isn’t something I’m taking advantage of,” he said. “I’ve had a hauling company since 2021. I’ve been hauling trash through my nonprofit for free since 2021.”
As Haigler said in the video, he supports the union’s efforts. But he also wants to continue the clean streets advocacy his social media platform and business have been doing since he launched them.
“No one had a problem with me picking up trash for free, using my own money or organizing with corporations and sponsors of my nonprofit raising money to pick up the trash,” he said. “It’s the same thing. Residents are choosing to sponsor their own trash pickup until the strike is over.”
Haigler says that he and his team did about 65 pickups on Tuesday. Wednesday had around 33 and Thursday was headed towards 60. Haigler estimated that all this added up to around eight tons in trash pickup due to the strike, along with the construction cleanup and illegal dumping pickups that he collects on a normal week.
By Thursday afternoon, he already had 52 pickups scheduled for Saturday, July 5, and the number was climbing.
Haigler had been mulling whether to keep his business going during a strike over the past three weeks, since the possibility that AFSCME District Council 33 and the city might be unable to resolve their impasse began to loom on the horizon. He said he even called some of the sanitation workers he previously worked with to get their opinions. All but one said they wouldn’t take it personally if he kept offering to help, he said.
He added that one of his former coworkers told him that his advocacy and spotlighting of Philly’s municipal sanitation workers and environmental justice had contributed to the confidence and momentum that the union now has to try and negotiate for a higher wage and go on strike.
“I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but since I’ve started my Instagram and started advocating, I know personally I’ve shifted the perspective of sanitation workers and trash in the city of Philadelphia,” he said.
History lessons
Haigler said he understands the bargaining leverage the union has with all the trash left out on the streets. He has seen the calls for people to drop off their trash in front of City Hall as a form of protest, and said he supports those who wish to do that. As a municipal sanitation worker, he performed a similar form of protest in front of the Municipal Services Building back in 2021, to protest the efforts of the Streets Department under then-Mayor Jim Kenney.
Haigler said that those were different circumstances than this week, though.
“In 2021, we weren’t on strike. We just didn’t have the resources to do our job. But we weren’t on strike,” he said. “Everyone was still coming to work. Everyone was still busting and hustling, and the lack of people at work wasn’t because of a strike. It was because of a pandemic. People were sick. People were dying. This strike, while just as important, is a different circumstance than 2021.”
Tensions have flared between striking union members, city workers and police, particularly at the sanitation centers accepting dropoffs.
AFSCME District Council 33 president Greg Boulware was a guest on WHYY’s Studio 2 Thursday, and was asked whether people should take their trash to the temporary dropoff sites.
“I would say it doesn’t help our cause at all to do so,” Boulware said. “Would I call a citizen a scab? Absolutely not. They are citizens. They’re tax payers. They’re simply trying to figure out what to do with their trash. I would tell those citizens to urge the administration and the Mayor’s office to get to the table with us, to come with a deal that’s actually workable for us. Because, thus far, we’ve not come to that place.”
Haigler said he hasn’t received threats or any efforts to hinder his business.
‘I’m not taking advantage of anybody’
“What I’ve been advocating and doing this entire time, for the last five years, I’m creating an economically feasible way for Philadelphia to stay clean,” he said. “I’m not taking advantage of anybody. I’m not trying to make $6,000 in one day.”
After dump fees, paying his workforce, vehicle costs and everything else, Haigler said his profit margin on his $15 per household pickup offering comes to around $4 per house. He also stresses that none of this is coming from the city.
“I’m not taking money from the mayor or the city. I’m giving residents options to sponsor their own trash pickup until the strike is over.”
Haigler says his service is not taking what it collects to the temporary dropoff sites the city has opened this week. As he has always done, he takes it to the dump and pays the fees to dump it there, which eats deeply into any perceived profit margins
“It’s $120 a ton, minimum. So if I go do a pickup truck and pick up houses, the pickup truck only has half a ton, I still have to pay for a full ton,” he said. “People just don’t know all the things that go on in the industry. They don’t know everything that goes into being a hauler.”
One of the goals of Haigler’s business is also to provide work for young people returning from incarceration and at-risk youth. He said this factor also makes him comfortable with his decision to continue picking up trash during the strike.
“I know that there’s people that haven’t had any work that are working now and they have a second chance in life, and we’re empowering them to make better decisions,” he said. “So I’m OK with my decision. I still stand 10 toes deep.”
Haigler said that he hopes that the strike will be over by Monday. He was shocked that the negotiations haven’t reached a settlement.
“Some of them are living paycheck to paycheck, but that just shows the seriousness of [DC33 workers’] thoughts of their wages,” he said. “They are in desperate times. So for you to vote for a strike and not be paid during this time means you’re serious. Again, I support them wholeheartedly. Wholeheartedly.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
