A330
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Communication Breakdown
Conflict Ground Conflict; Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Company Policy; Procedure
No working headset at gate. Common in PHL. Usually I insist that they get one. Thought that I would be charitable today. Big mistake on my part. There is a procedure for pushing without a headset that's NEVER followed by the ground guys. At any rate; ground guy signaled to release brakes. I did to get an out time but nothing else.  Next thing that we know is that we're pushing.  No clearance; no nothing. I try flashing my nose light to no avail.  Get on the radio to broadcast that we're under an uncontrolled push and I can't communicate with our push crew. Ramp control doesn't seem surprised.The only thing that I can do is be a hard-[profanity] and insist that they find a working headset; as these guys have no clue what our procedures; hand signals; etc.; are. If that creates a large delay; so be it.  This won't happen again; at least to me.
A330 flight crew reported inability to communicate with ground crew during pushback; resulting in a pushback without a clearance.