NEW YORK — Philadelphia’s Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker continued her victory lap in New York City this weekend, celebrating alongside a politically powerful union that helped get her there.
Bill Sproule, the head of the EAS Regional Council of Carpenters, said from the union’s event near Times Square that his union chose to endorse Parker when she was still fourth in the race. They still did so, because of Parker’s long career as a “friend of labor,” Sproule said.
”That’s generous,” Parker said during her remarks. “I was more like 7th or 8th.“
”Underdog?” Parker recalled a staffer telling her at the time. “No, you under the damn dirt.”
But from the 16th floor bar off Broadway, Philly’s next mayor imagined a Philadelphia where everyone is working toward its success.
Parker said Friday night she has supported unions throughout her career because of how organized labor could have helped her grandmother, a domestic worker paid under the table.
Now, Parker said the room of movers and shakers in the Democratic Party will need to come together to create ”One Philly, a city united,” asking the crowd to chant the phrase with her.
”Everybody talks about this hope deficit in the city of Philadelphia: no belief in government, no belief that government can work for regular people on a daily basis,” Parker said. “We are working very hard to ensure that people can feel a sense of hope, and pride, and dignity. And we can’t do that unless we’re unified.”
Parker added that early critics said she’d be “controlled” by the labor unions that supported her, which she rejected.
”They’re thinking about the past. That’s Old Philadelphia,” she said.
If they’re hopeful for the city’s future, the mayor and organized labor should be working together to ensure the next generation gets trained for union jobs, she said.
The room was packed with Democrats from around the state, including at least three attorney general hopefuls and a handful of Dems who are still hoping to make their way into the Parker administration.
Parker also flexed her time as a state representative in Harrisburg, when she worked with some of the most conservative Republicans in the state to deliver for the city.
