HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

Public Sector Collective Bargaining

Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

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.

Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

The Story

In 1938, with the Great Depression squeezing city budgets, some 3,000 Philadelphia municipal workers walked off the job to protest wage cuts and layoffs—one of the first major public-employee strikes in a large American city. After eight tense days they won a collective bargaining agreement, a breakthrough for workers whose government employers had long insisted they had no right to organize. Out of that victory grew AFSCME District Council 33.

Why it matters

The 1938 strike helped establish that public employees, too, could bargain collectively, a milestone in the American labor movement that shaped the rights of millions of government workers.

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  • · 1938 Philadelphia municipal workers strike

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