While thousands of members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) held candles in the air and chanted, Ted Kirsch, president of the 21,000-member union, spoke to the school board inside. He said the union had set an October 27 deadline for the concessions imposed on union members to be rescinded and a new contract negotiated. Otherwise, the union would strike.

The contract imposed on the PFT lengthens the workday by an hour with no increase in pay, installs a two-tier administration-run "pay for performance" plan as opposed to a negotiated pay scale, and allows the district to transfer teachers between schools regardless of preference and seniority. It increases health costs and leaves teachers, pay well below the average in surrounding counties. The district's 8,000 nonteaching school workers would receive even less pay than the teachers.

Mayor Street imposed his contract terms under a two-year-old state law aimed at Philadelphia teachers. The law, Act 46, allows the mayor to act unilaterally and allows the governor to take over the school district and impose his own contract terms if he decides the schools are failing "to provide an adequate educational program." Under such a takeover, teachers could be stripped of their teaching licenses if they strike and the union would lose the protection of a contract.

Republican governor Thomas Ridge has said that he would move to take over the schools if the teachers don't accept the cutback contract imposed on them.

At the rally, union officials announced informational picketing would begin outside schools the next day, leading up to the October 27 walkout. Sentiment for a strike is high, as is solidarity with the teachers against the city's union-busting moves among workers here. "We have to strike, to keep the rights and benefits we have," Toby Hogan, a first grade teacher said, " but also for the children."

Public opinion polls show that more than two-thirds of people in Philadelphia support the union against the city in the contract dispute. These sentiments were reflected last week, when the Philadelphia City Council voted unanimously to demand that the mayor lift his imposed contract and reopen negotiations with the union.

Chanting "strike, strike," teachers marched away from the rally, determined to win a contract.