Whew! The DC33 strike is over! Or is it?

Now that the District Council 33 strike is over — maybe — it’s time to count the beads and baubles and figure out winners and losers.

Winners — the city and Mayor Cherelle Parker.

Losers — DC33 and its leader Greg Boulware.

But — the tentative contract must be ratified by a vote of the union’s 9,000 members, and while that it is likely, it is not a gimme.

Why?

The city’s largest and lowest-paid bargaining unit went on strike for eight days — more than a week’s salary — to accept what was essentially the city’s first offer — 3% a year for each of three years.

The union’s first demand — which I called unrealistic — was 8% a year for four years. Some complained that I should have been more on the union’s side. I replied that unions never expect their first demand to be met. It is a pie-in-the-sky bargaining tactic.

The union quickly adjusted its demand by coming down 3 percentage points. That concession should have been met by a sweetening of the city’s offer.

But it wasn’t. The city didn’t budge. It sat there like a tar stain on the sidewalk.

There were some minor adjustments to the contract, such as adding a “fifth pay scale step” that in years two and three would add 2% to the pay of some workers. Each worker got a $1,500 signing bonus, and some minor improvements to sick days.

This was not a win for the union.

And that is why, contrary to what usually happens, the rank and file may tell union leadership, which voted 21-5 to accept the offer, to return to the bargaining table. 

Which could mean restarting the strike, but not necessarily. The union could return to bargaining without the strike, but, honestly, if there is no strike there is no pressure on the city to find some more money.

As I have previously reported, there is bad blood between the mayor and this union, which makes it all the more surprising that DC33 caved like a Ford Fit hitting a trestle.

The union ratification vote will start Monday, will go on for several days (why?) with the results not finalized for one or two weeks, according to a union spokesman.

Weeks? Why?

I have been involved in strikes, and ratification votes. True, my union had 1,500 members, not 9,000, but just how hard is it to count ballots?

Is the union expecting hanging chads?

That long of a delay just generates suspicion that something isn’t kosher.