LL Cool J said he won’t cross the picket line.
The rapper said Thursday on Instagram that he won’t perform at Philadelphia’s Fourth of July celebration concert while AFSCME District Council 33, the city’s largest blue-collar workers union, is on strike.
“I never ever, ever, ever want to disappoint my fans, and especially in Philadelphia. Y’all mean too much to me, but there’s absolutely no way that I could perform, cross a picket line and pick up money when I know that people are out there fighting for a living wage,” he said in the video.
District Council 33 members went on strike Tuesday after they couldn’t reach a deal with the city on a contract by midnight. The union includes sanitation workers, leaving Philadelphia residents to have to haul their own garbage to dump sites. The strike has also affected the water department, causing several public pools to close.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker wrote on Facebook that she offered the union the “largest one-year raise” in over 30 years, part of a “historic 13%+ increase over four years.”
“I will not put the fiscal stability of the City of Philadelphia in jeopardy for no one. If that means I’m a one-term mayor, then so be it,” Parker said Thursday during a news conference. “But the history books will say that Mayor Cherelle Parker did right by the blue collar men and women of District Council 33 and put an offer on the table that no other municipal blue collar workers in the nation could be able to say that their city was providing mortgages for them to be able to become homeowners.”
District Council 33 President Greg Boulware said the city didn’t offer a valid counterproposal, according to local outlet WPVI.
“In order to come back to the bargaining table, you have to have a counterproposal to be able to do,” Boulware said, according to WPVI. “Now, we just presented the city with what we thought was a very, very fair kind of proposal last night. They rejected it and came back with very much the same proposal that they’ve had over the last three days.”
The union thanked LL Cool J on Instagram for not crossing the picket line.
“It’s truly a disgrace when a celebrity who wasn’t born or raised here has more respect for hard working union men and women than our own city administration,” the union wrote on Instagram.
Parker wrote on Facebook that she spoke with LL Cool J and she respects his decision not to perform at the Fourth of July concert.
“I am aware that LL Cool J has decided not to perform at WAWA Welcome America’s July 4th Concert tomorrow evening on the Parkway,” Parker said in a statement. “I spoke personally with LL Cool J today. I respect his decision, and understand his desire to see the city unified. He is always welcome in Philadelphia.”
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LL Cool J said that he’s still going to Philadelphia “in case” the union and the city can make a deal.
“I have respect for the city, of course. And I hope, I hope, I hope that the mayor and the city can make a deal,” LL Cool J said on Instagram. “I hope it works out.”
