Since September 7, some 21,000 members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) have been working without a contract, for the first time in 35 years. The union represents 13,000 teachers and 8,000 secretaries, aides, nurses, counselors, and other workers.

Mayor John Street, a Democrat, spoke live on television September 27 to announce that he was going to dictate new contract terms within 24 hours if the teachers union did not agree to major concessions. The terms include deep attacks on wages, working conditions, and seniority rights.

The contract that was imposed the next day lengthens the workday by one hour and the work year by two days without compensation, makes pay for new teachers dependent on administration review rather than job category and seniority, grants the administration the arbitrary right to transfer teachers between schools, increases health insurance co-payments by teachers, and keeps wages well below the average in the surrounding counties. School workers other than teachers had even lower wage increases imposed on them.  
 
Students support teachers
Jeanine Lentini, a teacher at Bok Technical High, told the Militant that she assigned her students to watch the mayor's speech, and the response of the chief negotiator for the PFT, and to prepare a report for the next morning's class. "When it was one young woman's turn," Lentini said, "she got up on her chair and led a pep rally for the teachers."

Lentini added that 80 percent of her students support the teachers.

Channel 10 television, which aired the mayor's speech and the PFT response, followed the broadcast with an on-line poll, and reported that viewers supported the teachers 68 percent to 32 percent.

"It may be tough medicine to swallow," David Cohen, chief negotiator for the city, said about the cutbacks. "The PFT is going to have to agree to a late-20th century education-reform teachers' contract."

The cutbacks are couched in "education reform" language, demanding teacher "accountability" and sacrifices in the name of "our kids." But the cuts imposed are familiar to many working people--attacks on wages, seniority rights, health and safety, and working conditions.

The rulers of the city and the state have combined to deprive the school system of the funds required to function. The shortfall for this year will be $80 million.

For the past few years, city officials and state legislators have wrangled over who should pay to cover the gap.

Two years ago, former superintendent of schools David Hornbeck demagogically announced he was going to close the schools unless the state coughed up more funds.

In response, the state legislature adopted Act 46, a special bill aimed at the Philadelphia school system that allows the governor to declare the city schools "distressed" and take them over. In the case of a state takeover, if the teachers do not work to his directions and under conditions he imposes, the governor can decertify them all. Act 46 also makes it illegal for teachers to strike if it cuts into the state-mandated 180-day school year.  
 
Governor threatens school takeover
Gov. Thomas Ridge, a Republican, has said that if the teachers don't give in to the city's demands he will take over the schools.

The bill also allows Philadelphia's mayor to unilaterally impose his own contract on the teachers, which Street did. The union and the district can supposedly still negotiate, but the board has not set any new meetings.

Although the members of the teachers union voted overwhelmingly to strike at the beginning of the school year, union officials have not launched a strike, warning about a possible state takeover.

Waiting in frustration, Philadelphia teachers watched as teachers in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, defying court injunctions that barred strikes and threatened fines against all teachers, kept up their picket lines and won important pay gains.

The PFT filed a court challenge October 5 to the imposed work changes, asking they be blocked until the state supreme court can rule on an earlier suit filed by the union that seeks to have Act 46 declared unconstitutional.

John Crysdale, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress in the 1st Congressional District in Philadelphia, has been campaigning widely among teachers at city schools, union meetings, and rallies.

"The Socialist Workers campaign supports the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers against a bipartisan drive aimed at gutting union protection of wages and working conditions," Crysdale said. "The PFT's fight against these attacks deserves the solidarity and support of all working people."

Crysdale explained that the bosses are demanding similar concessions from workers in all industries, aiming to slash wages, gut working conditions, step up the pace of work, and increase profits.

Against the teachers, Crysdale said, the employers and their political spokespeople use the code words "education reform" to justify their attacks on workers' rights and cut back funding for public schools. But their assault on school workers is part of the overall assault on the working class.

"The 'reforms' they are discussing have absolutely nothing to do with improving education for working people," Crysdale said.

"Under capitalism, schools are designed to promote social control, not learning, in order to reinforce and perpetuate the class relations and privileges of the existing order," Crysdale added. "Their schools are organized to teach us to be more obedient, not to learn and think for ourselves."

The socialist candidate called for opposing cutbacks in funding for public schools in the name of "reform."

Supporters of Crysdale have found a lot of interest in the new Pathfinder pamphlet, The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning: The Fraud of Education Reform under Capitalism by Jack Barnes. Local campaigners have sold 21 copies of the pamphlet to teachers, students, and others since the opening of the school year.