Philly Teacher Union Threatening to Strike is Mostly Performative

Philadelphia’s massive teacher union—the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT)—has already threatened to disrupt students’ education when the doors open this fall. Just a few months into negotiations over a new contract, PFT president Art Steinberg induced membership to “authorize” a strike. Reportedly, the vote was a landslide.

PFT’s strike authorization means little at this stage. To go on strike in Pennsylvania, a teacher union must reach the end of its existing contract (which doesn’t expire until the end of August), bargain until an impasse with the school board, and undergo several procedures to break the deadlock. If the stalemate persists after both sides have exhausted all efforts, the union can issue a strike notice.

Authorizing a strike at this stage is little more than performance art. It riles up parents, scares school board members, and shows teachers that union negotiators mean business.

But for performance art, it isn’t especially creative.

Pennsylvania’s teacher unions love to strike, and they talk about it all the time. In fact, Pennsylvania leads the country in teacher strikes, and it isn’t close. The progressive magazine Mother Jones found that, from 1968 to 2012, nearly 90 percent of all teacher strikes in the United States occurred in Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth Foundation counted 131 strikes over a 19-year period (1999–2018), causing 1,383 missed school days and affecting more than 300,000 students.

These numbers don’t include strike “authorizations” like PFT’s, which happen with even greater frequency. Strike authorizations are just the first of many rituals loosely based on actual conflict during closed-door bargaining sessions, where no one aside from teacher union negotiators and district lawyers really knows what’s going on. We’ve got a long way to go—and plenty more staged outrage—ahead of us.

Sadly, a strike authorization can still hurt teachers, students, and families. By inducing teachers to authorize a strike at this early stage, Steinberg and other union officials have already secured permission to call a strike whenever they want. At that point, Philadelphia teachers have already signed over whatever discretion they might have had to call a specific strike for a particular reason.

When union officials decide that PFT will strike, it may come as a surprise. Then, this scenario becomes more than performative. The work stoppage will be mandatory for all union members, regardless of whether they support it or want to walk a picket line. The district will close schools, send kids home, force parents to miss work, and stop paying teachers.

For teachers who aren’t enjoying this show, the best signal to union officials is to quit the union. Withdrawing financial support won’t ruin the union, but it will send a clear message that strikes are not the way to best serve children or their families.

Contact our friends at Americans for Fair Treatment to see how you can opt out.