LL Cool J Supports Striking Workers, Won't Perform At Philadelphia Fourth Of July Concert

LOADINGERROR LOADINGLL 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.Advertisement 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.”Advertisement 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 fa...