{"id":169635,"date":"2025-08-23T17:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T17:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/169635\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T17:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T17:07:10","slug":"why-philadelphia-teachers-are-ready-to-strike-the-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/169635\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Philadelphia Teachers are Ready to Strike \u2013 The 74"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This story<\/a> was originally reported by Nadra Nittle of The 19th<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a \u201cpink-collar profession\u201d \u2014 a nickname given to women-dominated occupations \u2014 teaching has historically paid less than comparable fields requiring a higher education degree, and in Philadelphia, the push to close the wage gap could lead to a strike by the end of the month.<\/p>\n

Salaries for Philly teachers \u2014 roughly 70 percent of whom are women<\/a> \u2014 begin at $54,146. That\u2019s far below the median earnings of Pennsylvania college graduates<\/a>. Now, concern over pay has become a sticking point between the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) and the School District of Philadelphia as they negotiate a new contract, with the current collective bargaining agreement expiring August 31.<\/p>\n

The PFT in June voted to authorize<\/a> its executive board to initiate a strike if the union and the district don\u2019t agree on a new contract by then. With the deadline imminent and no deal in sight, schools may open on August 25 only for teachers to appear on picket lines within days. A strike could leave working parents in a lurch, scrambling for childcare \u2014 a task moms usually have to complete. Many Philly teachers, however, are also parents and demanding higher salaries to better provide for their families.<\/p>\n

PFT President Arthur Steinberg pointed out that even suburban teachers with less education often out-earn Philadelphia\u2019s top-performing educators by up to $22,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to close that gap as much as we can with this next contract,\u201d he recently told the Philadelphia Tribune<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amid ongoing negotiations, Steinberg appeared with School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Tony Watlington at a welcome event for new teachers on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are optimistic about a successful conclusion by the end-of-the-month deadline, and it\u2019s important to us that all of our employees feel seen, valued and heard,\u201d said Watlington, who called Steinberg a \u201ctough negotiator.\u201d<\/p>\n

To reach an agreement, Steinberg said, \u201cThere\u2019s significant work that has to be done, but it\u2019s doable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, union members are prepping for a strike, making protest slogans at the new teacher orientation. A strike would be the first in Philadelphia since 1981<\/a>, when teachers walked out for 50 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur schools are not safe, they\u2019re not healthy for anybody to work in or go to school in,\u201d chemistry teacher Kate Sundeen told local news station ABC 6<\/a>. \u201cWe have a hard time with teacher retention and a hard time attracting new talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philadelphia teachers complained to The 19th<\/a> in 2023 about working in century-old buildings that swelter in early fall heat. Before then, the PFT expressed concerns to The 19th<\/a> that the district was not taking robust action to prevent exposing teachers to COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The PFT represents nearly 14,000 teachers<\/a>, counselors, school nurses, librarians and other educators. Just under 200,000 students attend the School District of Philadelphia<\/a>, which has garnered nationwide attention since the hit workplace comedy \u201cAbbott Elementary\u201d \u2014 set in Philly \u2014 debuted in 2021.<\/p>\n

In recent years, a number of large urban school districts have gone on strike. They include classified workers in Los Angeles Unified School District<\/a> in March 2023, teachers in Seattle Public Schools<\/a> in September 2022 and classified workers and teachers in Minneapolis Public Schools<\/a> in March 2022.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the national bus tour of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) will arrive in West Philadelphia to support the PFT ahead of\u00a0a possible strike. The event will be the last of six strike preparation events that have taken place before the teachers head back to work on Monday, a week before the first day of school.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/This story was originally published on The 19th.<\/p>\n

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter This story was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":169636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,50,1448,2830,1311,10867,10774,67249,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-169635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-federation-of-teachers","14":"tag-school-district-of-philadelphia","15":"tag-teacher-strike","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115079180613063734","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}