Teachers’ unions strike for various reasons. Sometimes, it is a matter of endangering parents’ livelihoods, jeopardizing children’s futures, and altogether holding local authorities to ransom in order to gain leverage at the bargaining table when discussing compensation and perks. Other times, it’s a matter applying similar pressure in order to advance a costly political agenda that might not otherwise gain traction if pursued via transparent democratic processes free of coercion.
Teachers’ union strikes and so-called sickouts are hardly a new phenomenon. However, the pandemic exposed some of the callous calculations frequently behind them as well as their pernicious impact on kids, zapping some parents’ tolerance for the corresponding school closures, especially when illegal, as strikes are in 37 states and the District of Columbia.
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