Pennsylvania - Marker Enshrines AFSCME Victory

PROUD HISTORY – This marker honors an historic AFSCME victory led by Bill McEntee in Philadelphia 70 years ago. 

Photo Credit: Saul Schniderman

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

An historic marker, recently erected at City Hall and dedicated in memory of Bill McEntee — father of AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee — commemorates the first collective bargaining agreement established between AFSCME and the city of Philadelphia 70 years ago.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission memorial reads: “In 1938, 3,000 Philadelphia municipal workers launched a strike protesting wage cuts and layoffs, among the first in a major American city. After 8 days, a collective bargaining agreement was reached, leading to the formation of AFSCME District Council 33.”

Under Bill McEntee’s leadership, workers in the city’s Street Cleaning, Highways and Water departments affiliated with AFSCME in 1938. Members of Local 427, they walked off the job to demand justice after the city laid off 264 workers and cut pay by 30 percent for those remaining. Strikebreakers were hired but they could not break the workers’ will.

Philadelphia officials soon abandoned their proposed pay cut. The laid-off workers were rehired and the two groups crafted the first collective bargaining agreement between AFSCME and a major city. District Council 33 was established in 1945. In 1956, DC 33 hired Gerald W. McEntee as an organizer and negotiator. He went on to lead the historic drive that brought union rights to 75,000 state workers in the newly chartered Pennsylvania Council 13, established in 1971.

At a Pennsylvania Labor History Society event in September, where the historic marker was dedicated, DC 33 Pres. Herman (Pete) Matthews said, “We are a stronger union today because we have always held true to the core principles and the direction set by Bill McEntee and the founders of AFSCME District Council 33.”