'I am at war with the status quo,' says mayor one day before a judge decides if her back-to-office order will stand

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Mayor Cherelle Parker may lose in her effort to bring all city workers back to the office full time. A judge on Thursday will hear a request by the city’s white-collar workers union to halt the action. But the mayor has made it clear: If she goes down, she’ll go down swinging.

“I am at war. I am at war with the status quo,” Parker said Wednesday at a press conference in her reception room.

The mayor said she stands by her decision to call workers back to the office, starting on Monday, as part of her pledge to have a government that residents can see, touch and feel.

“Trying to use every tool possible to make good on the commitment that I made to you when I asked you to help me on this journey,” she said.

Parker said she didn’t come to the decision lightly and concluded it was best not only for residents but for the workers themselves.

“I believe that employee presence at the workplace allows for more personal and productive interactions, facilitates communication and promotes social connections, along with collaboration, innovation, inclusion and belonging.”

The mayor declined to talk about the suit by AFSCME District Council 47 challenging the order. And she declined to discuss contingencies if the judge in the case upends it.

Parker had nothing but praise for city workers, but DC 47 Vice President Robert Harris said she risks driving them away.

“This benefit is so important to them, not only are they looking so they can take their skills elsewhere, people are looking to poach them from city government,” Harris said. “She wants the best and the brightest. She’s about to lose them.”

Harris says the back-to-work order should have been negotiated .

“We’ve negotiated alternative schedules of many kinds, including hybrid.”

Greg Boulware of AFSCME District Council 33, which represents blue-collar workers, agreed the mayor should have discussed the decision with the union: “This is going to impact the nature of their lives — particularly in the middle of the summer, when there are child care issues going on.”

Eighty percent of the city’s workers have been back full time. The order covers about 4,000 workers. It is now out of the hands of both the mayor and the unions — and in the hands of the judge that will hear DC 47’s injunction request on Thursday.