Voting for Your Union

Imagine if a political party could stay in power for four decades without facing reelection. Thankfully, we have regular elections in this country. But for Pennsylvania teachers, this is reality.

Chances are you’ve voted for union officers, but never for your union. In fact, less than 1 percent of Pennsylvania schoolteachers represented by a union today had the opportunity to vote for that union. In Philadelphia, none of the district’s 8,086 teachers were employed by the district at the time the union was elected.

Once a government union is officially recognized—or “certified”—as representing employees, it is never required to stand for re-election. 

Union decertification is technically possible, but it’s an extremely onerous process that can only be completed in a short window of time. Employees must demonstrate 30 percent of workers in the bargaining unit want a decertification election, and requests for decertification can be submitted only around a contract’s expiration.

It’s no wonder just 17 of 24,158 current teachers in Pennsylvania’s largest school districts were employed during the last union certification election.  

Just as Americans are guaranteed the right to regularly go to the polls, teachers should be guaranteed the right to regularly re-elect their union. 

To find out the last time your district held a certification election contact [email protected]. For more information on the right to re-elect and other ways to increase democracy in teacher unions read Bringing Democracy to Pennsylvania Labor Unions.