Strike by city union workers impacts some Philadelphia International Airport operations

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Thousands of city union workers are on strike, and their numbers include some staffers who work at Philadelphia International Airport.

Members of AFSCME District Council 33 walked off the job early Tuesday morning.

Custodial, facilities, and maintenance workers at the airport are among the 9,000 city workers on the picket line.

"We clean at the airport inside, maintain the bathrooms, the floors, the trash inside, we maintain all of that," said custodial worker Tamika Sturgis. "Cost of living is going up. Our wages is staying the same," added Sturgis.

Airlines, concessions, parking, and federal security staff are not part of the striking union.

Passengers could see striking workers positioned near the departure entrances as the holiday travel rush amped up.

"This is a Philadelphia-owned building, so we maintain every square inch in there," said custodial worker Dave Myers.

"We never received hazard pay, but we was mandated to work during the pandemic," continued Myers.

RELATED: Thousands of Philadelphia city workers on strike, impacting trash, 911 and more

A PHL spokesperson said where permissible, PHL staff shortages will be temporarily filled by non-DC33 employees who are not performing critical or emergency work, along with contracted employees.

The strike comes amid a busy Fourth of July travel period.

From Tuesday through Monday, PHL is expected to see more than 681,000 people travel through.

Some of them have already seen weather-related impacts.

"First got delayed at LAX, my flight was supposed to be at 10:30, and it got pushed to 7 a.m., and then I missed my connecting flight from here to Savannah," said Davon Polite from Los Angeles, who still had to wait an entire day for an evening flight to Georgia.

RELATED: How DC 33 strike is impacting trash collection in Philadelphia

AAA predicts close to one million Philadelphia-area residents will travel this holiday period, which AAA defines as last Saturday through Sunday, July 6. That's a 2.3% increase from last year.

More than 93,000 of the travelers are expected to go by air, as the strike continues.

"This happened before, so it's just a matter of them negotiating and hopefully it will be settled," said Alleene Green, who grew up in Philadelphia but now lives in Louisville.

"There's always going to be changes when you have any kind of strike or disruption, but hopefully not too bad," said Billy Voges of Boston.

According to AAA, Sunday, July 6 is expected to be the busiest day of this travel period at PHL, followed by Thursday, July 3 and Monday, July 7.

For more coverage on the strike, visit 6abc.com/CityStrike.

For a list of impacted services during the strike, click here.