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Philadelphia teachers union leaders are preparing members for a strike as contract negotiations with the school district continue in the lead-up to the first day of school.
Negotiations are “moving more slowly than I would like,” Arthur Steinberg, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, told Chalkbeat this week. But he said despite the union and district making “some progress” toward an agreement, they have not reconciled some of the most pressing issues. Among them: salary increases for teachers and school staff, reforming the district’s controversial sick leave policy that union members say penalizes teachers for using sick days, and adding 12 weeks of paid parental leave. Union members currently get no paid parental leave.
Christina Clark, a district spokesperson, said in an email Thursday that she would not comment on the details of the negotiation process but that district officials “look forward to working with the PFT on a proposal that honors the hard work of our staff each day.”
Philly school officials have said the district is staring down a growing annual budget deficit, and it remains the only school district in the state that can’t raise its own tax revenue.
Steinberg said he still thinks there’s room for compromise. The district’s “initial set of proposals weren’t as irksome as they usually are,” he said but declined to give more details. “There were some [proposals] that we don’t think we can agree to, but nothing that set a bad tone, as it has in the past.”
A majority of the union’s 14,000 members voted to authorize a strike in June. A work stoppage could disrupt the first weeks and months of school. The first day of school for students is on August 25 and teachers are scheduled to head back to classrooms on August 18.
Though Steinberg said “we’re not ready to walk out tomorrow,” if negotiations stall in the next few weeks, “we could hit the bricks the next day,” he warned. The union’s contract expires on Aug. 31.
Steinberg declined to comment on how likely a teacher strike would be for the start of the school year, but he did say the union has begun reaching out to members who struck with the PFT during its 1981 and 2000 walkouts to give the newer members a “feel for what it was like and what to expect.”
As the summer stretches on, Philadelphia is inching closer to what could be a calamitous start to the school year. In addition to the threat of a teacher strike, the city’s public transit system is preparing to cut SEPTA bus and rail lines that serve more than 50,000 students and extreme heat conditions could likely result in school closures during the first week back.
What’s more, a state budget impasse has officials warning of delayed payments to prekindergarten programs and school districts posing additional complications for Philly schools’ budget. And ongoing uncertainty from the Trump administration has school leaders wary about relying on federal funds.
Labor leaders, including Steinberg, held a press conference Thursday urging Republicans who control the state Senate to send a budget bill to Gov. Josh Shapiro promptly.
Autumn Fingerhood, a district parent and stadium worker with the Unite Here Local 274 labor union, said her daughter relies on SEPTA to get to school, and she’s concerned service cuts could make their morning commute a challenge.
“They need to pass this budget,” she said. “My children need to be taken care of.”
Union contact negotiations throughout the city have also taken on a new tenor following the eight-day sanitation worker strike this month. That strike resulted in a contract agreement that fell short of what the union wanted but shored up the public’s general support for labor, Steinberg said.
“The school district likes to claim that they are the fastest growing large urban school district in the country,” Steinberg said. “A strike will derail that and really eliminate any progress that they have made.”
And as for Mayor Cherelle Parker’s promised teacher salary increases in 2030, “I’ll be long gone by then,” Steinberg said. “My members need money now.”
This story has been updated to include comment from a spokesperson for the School District of Philadelphia.
Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.
