In face of threats against them by city and state authorities, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT), with its 21,000 members, succeeded in winning support from many students and working people in this city. This was the first walkout by teachers here since 1981.

The teachers had been working for a month under a cutback contract unilaterally imposed on them by Mayor John Street. Act 46, an anti-labor state law enacted in 1998, gives city and state officials the power to impose contract terms on the city’s teachers and, if they strike in response, to decertify them.  
 
Picket lines go up
Union picket lines went up at city schools at the end of the school day Friday, while the union negotiating committee entered a new round of talks with the city.

The talks broke off after two hours as the city continued to press for an "education reform" contract that would increase the work day with no increase in pay, install a "pay for performance" scheme that would gut pay for job and seniority, and other cutbacks.

Stepping up his slander campaign against the teachers, Mayor Street assembled a big press conference that included most of the leadership of the city’s Democratic party, government officials, and even leaders of a few construction unions.

"This is the last best offer, folks," Street told the news media.

Street called on union leaders to put the city’s final offer up for a vote by the membership. "If a court order is issued," he said. "I don’t know how many of these teachers are going to be jeopardizing their futures as teachers."

A few days earlier, Street met with Gov. Tom Ridge to discuss plans for a "friendly" state takeover of the schools. This would allow the city to keep control of the school district while using the state’s power under Act 46 to impose whatever conditions they liked and to try to break any strike by the union.

Teachers expressed anger at the city and the state. "John Street is deluding himself if he thinks he can divide the membership and our leadership," said Patti Cruice, a teachers at the Houston Elementary School.

"I wanted to throw my shoe through the TV," added Judy Fink, who teaches second-grade at Houston.  
 
Students walk out to support teachers
Starting the day before the teachers’ strike deadline, students began organizing walkouts from city schools, marching downtown to City Hall and demanding that the city meet the teachers’ demands.

Some 700 students--half the student body--marched out of Girls High at 9:00 a.m. "The teachers couldn’t do it, so we did it for them," said Diane O’Neill, a junior at the North Philadelphia school. Waving signs and yelling into a megaphone, they marched around the grounds for more than 30 minutes.

"Support the PFT! Mayor Street cares more about the stadium than the future of Philadelphia’s students," read the sign carried by Sophomore Juliana Garcia. The mayor has said he will spend up to $1 billion to fund a new baseball stadium while refusing to meet the teachers’ demands.

About 40 students jumped on the subway to City Hall. "We wanted to see Mayor Street," junior Jill Collins said. "He didn’t come out."

The students then marched to the board of education office, linking arms and singing "We Are the World." They were turned away." They treated us like we were going to start trouble," sophomore Maura Ogden said.

The next day, with the strike scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m., students marched out of a number of city schools during the day. Students at South Philadelphia High walked out at 12:30. They decorated the school’s staircase with graffiti saying, "South Philly walked out 10/27."

Several hundred rallied at City Hall, including contingents from Benjamin Franklin High, Central High and the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. Students from William Penn High climbed the stairs to the hallway outside Street’s office.

More than two-thirds of the people interviewed in a poll on television news said they supported the teachers against the attack of the city and the state.

Both sides refused to comment on details of the tentative deal. The union has scheduled a mass meeting for November 2 at Temple University for the membership to discuss and vote on the proposed contract.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home