Hempfield teachers vote on strike, decline to reveal decision
Hempfield Education Association President Tony Jannotta declined to share the outcome of the teachers union vote to authorize a strike tonight, citing a need to get an accurate count before publicizing any information.
Jannotta said he was counting votes not only by members who attended the union meeting in person but absentee ballots submitted by those who couldn't make it tonight. The union has 538 members including 511 who pay dues and are able to vote.
A strike authorization vote has been on the table at Hempfield for a week now as the relations between the board and union have become contentious over negotiations to finalize a new contract. The previous contract expired June 30 – more than 100 days ago.
Teachers have been working under a salary range, between $62,033 and $100,752, approved for the 2023-24 school year in the previous teachers contract. Earlier this school year, the union invoked a work to rule order, meaning they will no longer do things like getting students on the bus after school or answering emails in the evening.
If the teachers did authorize a strike tonight, it would be the first time the union has done so since 2003 but it doesn't necessarily mean teachers will walk out and classes will be canceled. The strike authorization in 2003 never resulted in school closures.
A strike authorization gives union officers the power to notify the superintendent – at least 48 hours in advance – that a strike will occur.
"Our goal is to reach a fair agreement that benefits both our educators and the community without the need for a strike," the board wrote in an email statement this afternoon. "We strongly believe that a strike would have negative consequences for students, staff, and the community as a whole."
The last time the Hempfield teachers union went on strike and walked out – effectively closing the district's schools – was in 1984.
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Lancaster County hasn't had teachers leave their classrooms on strike since the 1991-92 school year, according to Chris Lilienthal, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania State Education Association.
In September 1991, teachers in four districts – Conestoga Valley, Elizabethtown Area, Pequea Valley and Cocalico – walked picket lines, while talks over salary increases and length of the teachers' work year stalled. More than 8,600 students were impacted by the strikes, according to reporting in the Intelligencer Journal.
At the same time in Elanco, teachers were working without a contract. Penn Manor and Warwick had settled negotiations with their respective school boards, avoiding strikes.
Pequea Valley was the first to return to classrooms, with a settlement reached after about a week of striking. Cocalico settled next. Conestoga Valley ended its walkout after nine days . Elizabethtown's strike ended after 13 days . Some of the schools reopened in the districts, though, with hundreds of substitute teachers joining dozens of unionized teachers who crossed the picket lines.
Strikes can be effective
At Hempfield, teacher pay is one of the major hangups that's delayed contract negotiations long enough that the union is even considering a strike. Strikes can have a positive impact in that department.
A first-of-its-kind study published under lead author and assistant professor of public policy at the University at Albany, Melissa Arnold Lyon, this year found that teachers strikes lead to increased teacher pay and improved working conditions. According to the study's database of 772 teacher strikes across 27 states between the 2007-2008 and 2022-23 school years, strikes increased compensation by 8% – or roughly $10,000 per teacher per year – by the fifth year after the strike.
In 89% of the strikes teacher pay was a key issue, according to the study, but salary wasn't the only contract item that strikes improved. On average, the study found that teacher strikes have led to decreased class sizes and increased working-condition expenditures, which includes the salaries of school nurses, social workers and psychologists.
And while the study found strikes are effective, it also found that most are brief. The most common length of a strike is just one day.
