Article
- Legislation
PA House-Senate appoint committee chairs
The Pennsylvania House and Senate have named the following legislators as majority and minority chairs of their committees. The retirements and election losses brought major leadership changes to several committees.
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Article
- News
Senate leader drops challenge to Lindsey Williams
PA Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati dropped his challenge to and seated Sen. Lindsey Williams as the elected senator of the north Pittsburgh suburban 38th District. Williams was one of three AFTPA members elected to the state legislature.
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Article
- News
New Foundations Charter School ratifies first union contract
Teachers and support staff at New Foundations Charter School in Philadelphia ratified their first union contract unanimously after 11 months of negotiations. The faculty and staff voted to join the Alliance of Charter School Employees, Local 6056 of the American Federation of Teachers, AFT Pennsylvania, in 2017.
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Article
- Press
AFT leaders offer condolences to Pittsburgh synagogue attack victims, community
AFT leaders in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Washington offered their condolences in the wake of the mass shooting of 13 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday morning.
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Article
- News
Post-Janus bill would discourage workers from joining unions
The Janus decision is behind us, but some PA lawmakers want laws on the books weakening unions. House Bill 2571 would require employers to notify workers every two weeks that they can drop their union membership.
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Article
- Legislation
Post-Janus, PA lawmakers float bills attacking unions and their members
The Janus decision has emboldened PA lawmakers to propose a several bills aimed squarely at taking down public employee unions and disempowering school and state workers.
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Article
- Legislation
Vouchers, EITC, ESAs don't help students
AFT Pennsylvania opposes taxpayer-funded school vouchers, education scholarship tax credits (Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs), which are back-door vouchers that use tax breaks to subsidize private and parochial schools. Vouchers represent a false hope for a few children, while most vouchers/scholarships are used by students already attending private schools. Vouchers do not deliver better outcomes for students and leave fewer resources for public school programs that are proven to work.
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Article
- News
Trump's budget takes a meat cleaver to public education
The 2018 budget proposal released by the White House on March 16 "takes a meat cleaver to public education" and ignores promised investments in the types of skills, training and other vital family supports that Trump rode to the White House in 2016, AFT President Randi Weingarten says.
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Article
- Legislation
No vote yet on bill gutting paid sick days
PA senators are considering a bill that removes mandatory paid sick, bereavement and sabbatical leaves from the school code, leaving them subject to collective bargaining in every school district.
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Article
- Legislation
Hey Harrisburg: We can 'protect' our own paychecks!
The Pennsylvania Senate passed a so-called "paycheck protection" bill that redefines normal union activities such as legislative advocacy and non-partisan voter registration drives as "political" and then bar unions from using automatic payroll deductions to fund those activities.
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Article
- Locals
Barrack Hebrew Academy Faculty Ratifies 5-Year Contract
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy Faculty Association today approved a new, five-year contract with the private Jewish day school, providing for raises totaling 10 percent over the life of the contract.
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Article
- Press
3 Strikes Against Corbett-Tobash Pension Plan
AFT PA President Ted Kirsch says the Corbett-Tobash pension plan has three strikes against it. It won't save money. It won't pay down the pension debt. And, even worse, it decimates teachers' and public workers' retirement security. Read Ted's statement and the Keystone Research Center critique.
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Article
- Resources
Budget, Pension, Privatization Spokesperson Workshops
The PA AFL-CIO is training rank-and-file union members across the state to be spokespeople on key issues this June. Learn about labor's messages, and help get the word out.
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Article
- Press
AFTPA Unanimously Endorses Tom Wolf for PA Governor
By unanimous vote Wednesday, the AFTPA Executive Council endorsed Tom Wolf for Governor. “Tom Wolf will reclaim the promise of public education, making it his top priority,” said AFTPA President Ted Kirsch.
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Article
- News
PFT, PCAPS Release Results of Survey on Local Control of Public Schools
The PFT and PCAPS are calling for dissolving the School Reform Commission in favor of a locally accountable school board
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Article
- News
PA Residents Agree: Invest in Public Education
A survey of Pennsylvanians by Terry Madonna's Opinion Research group found that 71 percent of Pennsylvanians believe the state needs to make a bigger investment in public education.
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Article
- News
Philly charter school ratifies union contract
Members of the Alliance of Charter School Employees at Wakisha Charter School in Philadelphia (AFTPA Local 6056) ratified a new union contract unanimously.
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Article
- News
Protesters Demand: Fund Philly Schools
It was an awe-inspiring sight in Philadelphia Thursday (Aug. 22) as thousands of students, parents, teachers and school staff clad in iconic red T-shirts marched from Comcast headquarters and around City Hall to rally outside school district headquarters for full, fair and sustainable funding for public schools.
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Article
- Press
Parents want strong neighborhood schools, study says
AFT released a new survey of parents that shows that parents want politicians to support neighborhood public schools. Ted Kirsch released the following statement about the study.
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