Thousands of educators from across the country will be joined by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren this weekend as they converge on Pittsburgh for the biennial convention of the American Federation of Teachers.
They will gather Downtown about two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court dealt public sector unions a major blow and after months of teacher strikes and calls for change across the country.
"We are at this solemn and scary inflection point in our country where there are really troubling trends and amazing activism at the same time," AFT President Randi Weingarten said. "It is really surreal."
The AFT represents more than 1.7 million teachers, paraprofessionals and other school personnel in more than 3,000 affiliates across the country. The AFT has 61 affiliates in Pennsylvania, including in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Both the AFT and the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the country, endorsed Ms. Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Ms. Weingarten, who has served as the AFT's national president for 10 years, will deliver her "state of the union" address Friday morning, before Ms. Clinton addresses the conference. Sen. Warren will speak on Saturday and Sen. Sanders will speak on Sunday. The presidents of the SEIU, the National Education Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are also scheduled to speak on Saturday.
A rally and march is scheduled for Saturday afternoon Downtown to call for more investment in public education.
"My hope is that the members walk out of the convention seeing themselves in the union, feeling a renewed spirit for the fight," Ms. Weingarten said.
The convention will be held just weeks after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mark Janus, an employee of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and determined that labor unions cannot require public sector workers to pay dues. The historic decision broke 40 years of precedent and marked a major hit to unions that represent teachers, emergency officials and other government employees across the country.
The Pittsburgh conference also follows a wave of union activity across the country in 2018, during which teachers in West Virginia, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma and Kentucky walked off the job, calling for better pay and more money from their state legislators for public education.
A teacher strike was averted in Pittsburgh in February after the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers and Pittsburgh Public Schools reached a three-year contract agreement after months of tense negotiations. The PFT's roughly 3,000 members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, and issued a four-day notice to the district and the community that it intended to stop work if an agreement wasn't reached.
"Everyone is coming together, just showing that solidarity," said PFT President Nina Esposito-Visgitis. "And it's just perfect. That's what Pittsburgh is. A place where we fight back and stick together."
The convention will be held Friday through Monday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
Elizabeth Behrman: Lbehrman@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1590 or @Ebehrman on Twitter.
First Published: July 10, 2018, 3:20 p.m.
