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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 21, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------Philly teachers ready pickets
By Joe Piette
Philadelphia
The picket signs are ready. For the first time since 1981, some 21,000 Philadelphia teachers and staff may soon be walking picket lines.
At a members-only rally Sept. 10, some 400 strike captains and union representatives were briefed on the state of negotiations and picketing laws.
On Sept. 11 the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court again refused to extend the current teachers' contract, which expired Aug. 31. For the first time since the union won collective-bargaining rights in 1965, city teachers are working without a contract.
"This means we can't assure our members that the school district won't change the terms and conditions of employment while we go on negotiating. ... Now the ball is back in the district's court," said Ralph Teti, general counsel for the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.
Teachers have been working in their assigned schools since Sept. 7 pending the results of a Teachers union lawsuit against State Act 46, a union-busting law that applies only to Philadelphia teachers.
Act 46 prohibits extending the teachers' contract past Aug. 31. It allows state officials to take over the school district in the event of a strike, remove teachers' certification if they do not return to work, appoint a new school administration and impose new work rules.
The state high court had previously ignored the law, simply extending the old contract and allowing negotiations to continue. It has still not ruled on whether Act 46 is constitutional. The court asked both sides to submit arguments within 20 days.
Anti-labor laws
Another of the many anti-labor laws against the teachers forces them to give the school district 48 hours notice before a walkout. As of Sept. 12 no notice has been given. Union leaders instructed teachers, secretaries and classroom aides to report to work until they hear otherwise.
Negotiations are set to resume Sept. 13.
The school district's last offer "was an absolute insult to this membership and the offer moves the process backward," said Jerry Jordan, the teachers' chief negotiator.
Wages, health care and the right to seniority are the main issue. The district wants to ignore seniority in deciding where teachers are assigned. It wants pay levels determined by student performance and "teacher competency" instead of length of service. Administrators would have the final say.
The union reported Sept. 11 that 253 classes with 7,000 students had no permanent teachers. "They can't adequately staff the schools now," said union President Ted Kirsch. "How will their proposals to reduce health benefits attract more and better teachers?"
With a unanimous vote, thousands of teachers have authorized union leaders to call a strike.
State law dictates that school strikes must end before the school year is shortened to less than 180 days. That means the teachers can strike only four to five weeks before coming into further conflict with the state. Fines could then be levied against the strikers and taken from their pension funds.
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