Philly teachers say they’re ‘not close’ to a contract deal, and they’re preparing for a potential strike

Maecki Whitney grabbed a thick red marker and set to work.

“WTF?” the Philadelphia School District teacher wrote in careful big letters on a rectangular piece of white poster board. “Where’s The Funding?”

With 25 days left until the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers contract expires, Whitney and dozens of PFT members gathered at a Northeast Philadelphia union hall Wednesday to make signs and say they’re ready to walk a picket line as the school year begins, if push comes to shove.

The powerful PFT represents 14,000 teachers, school counselors, nurses, secretaries, and other workers. Members voted in June to authorize a strike if the negotiating team deems it necessary. The contract expires Aug. 31. Students return to school Aug. 25.

Arthur Steinberg, the union’s president, said negotiations were moving slowly. He wanted to begin talks in January, but was met with resistance.

“I wanted this done before you left — for your peace of mind, so you can enjoy your summer, and for your parents and our communities to know that school would be opening on time, uninterrupted. They did not share that sense of urgency. I hope they’re starting to get it now,” Steinberg told a room full of school workers, giving up one of their last summer days.

» READ MORE: Philly teachers vote to authorize a strike

Steinberg said the PFT team would be “available to meet every day if necessary to get this done by Aug. 31.”

Key issues include the perpetual concerns: salary and benefits, but also adding parental leave (PFT members currently get none), and ending the controversial “3-5-7-9″ sick-day policy that penalizes teachers from taking their contractually earned time.

The school district is optimistic it can reach an agreement, said spokesperson Monique Braxton.

“The School District of Philadelphia highly values its teachers and support staff and continues to actively participate in conversations with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and engage in good faith negotiations with the hope of securing a new contract as soon as possible,” Braxton said.

Steinberg, in an interview, said the talks have “not been contentious” but said he was “disturbed by the lack of urgency” on the district’s part.

He said the two sides “were not close” to agreeing to terms.

The city workers’ strike this summer helps PFT’s cause, Steinberg said. About 9,000 city workers in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33, including trash collectors, street pavers, 911 dispatchers, and others, walked off the job for eight days last month when they couldn’t reach a deal with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration.

“When you saw some of the polling data afterward, the residents of the city of Philadelphia support workers, and feel they deserve to be treated with dignity, and to earn a living wage,” Steinberg said.

Brand-new teachers earn $54,156; so-called “senior career teachers” at the top of the pay scale earn $107,495. Paraprofessionals, however, start out at $24,658, and max out at $49,346.

Those support staff wages, in particular, are galling, Steinberg said.

“To me, it’s unconscionable that they come to work every day, they are parents of our kids in many cases, and they make so little they qualify for food stamps and Medicaid,” he said.

Both Parker and Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. have said they believe PFT members deserve raises — that puts the union in a better spot than in prior years, when the district started out asking for salary freezes or even pay cuts, Steinberg said.

But though some kind of PFT raises are a given, the amount is unclear. The district is spending $300 million of its reserves just to pay bills and avoid classroom cuts and layoffs for the 2025-26 school year. It’s projecting a deficit in the next several years unless the city and state step up with additional funding; the district cannot raise its own revenue.

Members are also paying close attention to quality-of-life issues, like the lack of parental leave in the current contract. That makes it difficult to recruit and retain teachers, especially amid an ongoing educator shortage, Steinberg said.

Around the rectangular tables during Wednesday’s poster-making session, members swapped stories and shared fears: what would it be like if the PFT went on strike? (The last PFT strike was in 2000, but it did not disrupt school; in 1981, teachers went on strike for 50 days.)

The PFT only regained the ability to strike fairly recently; for years, the union was forbidden under terms of a state takeover from striking. That prohibition ended when the district returned to local control in 2018.

Tyrone Neal, a school counselor at George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science, said that while no one wanted a strike, PFT members must be willing to do so to send a message.

“Teachers are the backbone of everything,” said Neal. “We have to get to a place where we understand that our students are better off, everyone is better off, when teachers have what they need.”

Krisha Coppedge, a teacher at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Lawncrest, knows how disruptive a strike would be for students and families.

“We don’t want to strike,” said Coppedge. “It’s a last resort for us. But we will do it. It’s necessary, a necessary evil.”

Ren Cloutier, a teacher at Lincoln High, agreed. It felt good to take concrete steps to show the district that the PFT won’t be pushed around, said Cloutier.

“A lot of people are eager to flex our muscles,” said Cloutier. “I was down on some of the picket lines, giving supplies to DC33 members. I know that Philly has our back.”