Biden to speak at Philadelphia church service Sunday, will take part in Harrisburg campaign event

President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event on March 8, 2024 in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

President Joe Biden has canceled his appearance at the National Education Association conference in Philadelphia on Sunday, after a union representing NEA workers announced it was going on strike Friday. 

“President Biden is a fierce supporter of unions and he won’t cross a picket line,” the Biden campaign said in a statement Friday. “The President is still planning to travel to Pennsylvania this weekend, and we will have more details to share at a later point.”

PennLive reported Friday that Biden would appear in the Harrisburg area on Sunday, at an invitation-only ice cream social event at the Biden-Harris campaign office in Lower Paxton Township.

“On Sunday morning, President Biden will deliver remarks at a church service in Philadelphia,” a campaign official told the Capital-Star. “In the afternoon, the President will head to Harrisburg where he will participate in a campaign community event.”

The National Education Association Staff Organization (NEASO) said in a news release Friday that it had filed two unfair labor practice complaints against the NEA with the National Labor Relations Board. The union accuses the NEA of wage theft and of “failure to provide information requested by the staff union on outsourcing more than $50 million to contractors.”

The NEA said in a statement Friday that it “values our staff and we remain fully committed to a fair bargaining process.”

The statement added was “deeply concerning that misinformation has been shared” from the contract negotiations.

“The National Education Association has threatened to host its convention virtually to avoid a physical picket line. For a union to trick its members into crossing a picket line is reprehensible. It also confirms what we have been saying: NEA has abandoned its union values with its actions at the bargaining table,” NEASO President Robin McLean said in a statement. “NEA would rather cancel a multi-million-dollar convention than comply with labor law. NEA members should question where their hard-earned dues dollars are being used—and wasted.”

Biden frequently touts himself as the most pro-union president in history, and crossing a picket line would be problematic. In September, Biden walked the picket line with United Auto Workers who were on strike, believed to be the first time in modern history that a sitting president had visited an active strike.

The NEA represents public school teachers and support personnel, faculty and staff at colleges and universities, as well as college students preparing to become teachers and retired educators. 

NEASO’s contract expired on May 31, 2024. According to its website it represents 350 members of the NEA’s roughly 3 million members.  

The appearance with first lady Jill Biden would have been Biden’s ninth of the year to Pennsylvania, and his first in the state since his shaky performance at last week’s presidential debate.

Biden’s most recent appearance in Pennsylvania, also in Philadelphia, was in late May with Vice President Kamala Harris to launch the campaign’s Black Voters for Biden-Harris initiative. 

Update: This article was updated 1:05 p.m. July 5, 2024 with statement from the NEA, and at 5:40 p.m. with information about a Harrisburg event, and at 9:30 p.m with updated information from a campaign official. 

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