Arthur G. Steinberg

Arthur G. Steinberg was elected as a vice president of the AFT at the July 2022 convention in Boston. He has served as president of AFT Pennsylvania since he was elected in 2019 and was re-elected in 2021. As president of AFT Pennsylvania, Steinberg represents 36,000 teachers, paraprofessionals and other school staff, school nurses, community college faculty, and public and private sector employees in 64 locals across Pennsylvania and Delaware.

While Steinberg has been a member of the AFT Pennsylvania executive council since 2009, his commitment to rehabilitation of toxic school buildings, reforming Pennsylvania’s broken charter school laws, and fair funding of public education predates his holding of statewide union office. He began his teaching career and membership in the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers in 1979 as a special education teacher at Philadelphia’s Edison High School, following in the footsteps of his parents, who were both teachers.

Steinberg became a PFT staff representative in 1983 and, within three years, began serving as a grievance representative and then coordinator for the PFT Health and Welfare Fund as chief trustee. For nearly 40 years, he has also been responsible for the PFT’s Educational Research and Dissemination program, which provides research-based professional development to members. And he helped develop the union’s asbestos, lead and mold program to assess the safety of school facilities.

While managing the PFT Health and Welfare Fund, Steinberg hired an environmental scientist on staff, one of only two such scientists in the nation on a local union staff. In collaboration with experts, he oversaw development of the Healthy Schools Tracker phone app, which allows union members to report facility safety issues in real time.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Steinberg and AFT Pennsylvania became authorities on the safe reopening of school buildings.

Steinberg is the longtime PFT treasurer and co-chairs the AFT State Federation Presidents Advisory Council. He serves on the executive committee of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO and was tapped by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf to join the state’s Health Care Cost Containment Council.

September 2022