In April 2024, the Teamsters labor union was met with another victory as Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed into law HB 4127. This bill will ensure improved worker safety in the e-commerce and warehouse industries through guaranteeing workplace quotas do not interfere or violate workers’ rights and safety standards. This is a significant stride toward worker safety and well-being through addressing the exploitative predatory quota systems used by profit-driven companies like Amazon.
Demolition of the old PES Refinery at HRP’s Bellwether District build site, October 22, 2021, Philadelphia, Pa.
The former PES refinery located in South Philadelphia which used to be the largest oil refinery on the East Coast is now entering its newest chapter. Construction has begun on the site, with plans of erecting the first warehouse on this site. The new factory will be more than 300,000-square-foot and developers estimate it will be complete by the end of 2024. The old refinery permanently shut down in 2019 after a fire and a series of explosions which released over 5,000 pounds of dangerous hydrofluoric acid into the air, endangering thousands of Philadelphians living in the area at the time. Parts of the site along the Schuylkill River in South and Southwest Philadelphia were used for petroleum-related industry dating back to the Civil War period, contaminating the soil and groundwater beneath the site. The refinery operator declared bankruptcy after the fire and laid off over 1,000 employees. In 2020, Hilco Redevelopment Partners (HRP) bought the site for $225 million, and has begun preparing the site for construction. Both HRP and Evergreen– an affiliate of former owner Sunoco– are responsible for remediating the site. Community benefit agreement talks between HRP and more than two dozen local Registered Community Organizations and other stakeholders started last spring. Some nearby residents and activists have called for fossil fuel-free development on the site, as well as guarantees around employment, anti-displacement and environmental health.
PILOTs have the power to “shift wealth from powerful and privileged institutions to the neediest and most marginalized communities,” says guest columnist Angela Chan.
More than 100 educators, students, and activists marched through University City on March 30 to urge Penn and other property tax-exempt universities to pay Payments in Lieu of Taxes to Philadelphia. The protest, called #PhillySchoolsDeserve: A March for PILOTs, was co-sponsored by Penn Community for Justice, Drexel Community for Justice, Penn for PILOTs, and other community organizations.
Over 100 students, teachers, and community members marched through Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania’s campuses on Thursday evening calling on both schools to make payments in lieu of taxes to support the School District of Philadelphia. A drumline led the protesters through the streets, organized by advocates from Philadelphia Jobs With Justice, the Our City Our Schools Coalition, Penn for PILOTs, Home and Schools Association, Caucus of Working Educators, Juntos, and other groups.
Calls for Penn to pay Payments in Lieu of Taxes to Philadelphia were raised yet again in a recent City Council committee hearing that examined how nonprofit tax exemptions affect the funding of local schools, as well as the role PILOTs can play in the city’s future.
City Council’s Committee on Children and Youth held a public hearing Wednesday hosted by Councilmember at-Large Kendra Brooks in partnership with Philadelphia Jobs with Justice to examine the relationship between the property tax exemption for wealthy nonprofits on the School District of Philadelphia’s budget and how to fund cleaning up environmental hazards in district facilities.
Activists say Penn’s commitment is a step in the right direction but falls short of their goal to have the university pay PILOTs commensurate with the amount of property it owns.
Philadelphia Jobs With Justice, a pro-labor nonprofit, has been campaigning for this for years. “This victory is a testament to the strength of the movement by public school teachers, parents and students for equitable funding for their schools,” said Devan Spear, the executive director of Philadelphia Jobs With Justice, in a press release. “It is also not the end of this fight. The immense wealth inequality and chronic public-school underfunding in our city requires a fundamental transformation in the way that wealthy institutions relate [to] surrounding communities.”
