For some teachers just being able to come to Harrisburg in 1968 took arduous negotiations.
“We had several negotiations for a contingent to be able to go, and in the end we had to pay for our substitutes,’’ said Dick Sterner, a junior English teacher at the time in the Allentown School District, Lehigh County.
It was an experience he will never forget.
“It was amazing to see thousands and thousands of people who were engaged in the same mission that you were: trying to improve the lot of teachers,’’ Sterner said.
The rally, he said, was the culmination of the discontent and frustration teachers were feeling during the 1960s.
Sterner had been involved in attempting to negotiate what he called a “comprehensive agreement’’ in Allentown.
“NEA was starting to push collective bargaining at the time, but the problem was the school board would just say, ‘this is what you are getting; it’s over.’ We had no leverage.”
After collective bargaining rights were attained, Sterner saw an opportunity for a significant career change.
He worked as a consultant for PSEA after the rally, and that led to him taking a job as a UniServ in 1971.
“The times set the groundwork for what PSEA has become,’’ said Sterner, who worked for the Association for 25 years. “For me personally, I decided I wanted to work for teachers rather than teach.’’
