I think it depends if public safety is involved. If the police or fire were to to go on strike, public safety would be compromised, so it should be illegal. Teachers going on strike would be inconvenient but not a public safety risk, so it should be allowed.
There is the famous case of the day in 1969 when the police in Montreal went on strike and as a result the city went into chaos.
Maybe choose your words a little more carefully, Mark?
How would you feel about a teachers lockout? The fact is that these are legally required and important services and just flat stopping it over a labor dispute is not cool. Long scbool stoppage can take students years to recover.
That said, I have no problem with this work protest.
And poor school conditions can take even longer to recover from.
When the teachers were locked out at my mom’s old school, I thought it was idiotic, short-sighted, and wasteful on the district’s part, but it never once occurred to me that it might or should be illegal.
Did Reagan ever have anyone arrested for striking?
I wish you luck. One of my closest lifelong friends is a career North Carolina public school teacher - working in a low income urban setting. She also does private tutoring, drives an Uber and rents out a room in her home on AirBNB. All to make ends meet.
She loves her work and making a difference, but she can’t make a living.
I don’t know that Reagan ever singled out any particular individual for arrest but there were indeed arrests among PATCO officials in the aftermath of the strike.
State Rep. Mark Brody says ‘Teacher Union thugs’ are behind education march!
I think my eyes just rolled out of my head.
Here’s the best quote from his letter (bolding mine):
:rolleyes:
Maybe if they weren’t finding themselves already so inconvenienced, they wouldn’t feel the need to draw your attention to it. How about we try that tactic, Mr. Brody?
For those that don’t know , the NC GOP has veto proof majorities in both state houses. And they removed a lot of power from the Dem governor. I hope this rally works but I have my doubts about any changes from the GOP.
They’re in hard-core spin mode: so concerned for educators while disappointed in those of us too simpleminded to see through the lies of the union thugs.
The goal here, let’s be honest, isn’t to get them to see the light. It’s to get voters to see the light.
And I think the voters are, after seeing some of the frankly corrupt stuff this legislature has done. This action by the teachers is coming at a good time, I think. If legislators don’t listen, they can be reminded of that fact right up to November.
Clearly they need to pay teachers more so that they can hire teachers who are smarter than the ones they’ve got - smart enough to see through the lies of the union thugs! 
It amuses me that they’re trying to label the overwhelmingly-female members of the teachers’ organization as ‘thugs.’ I think that’ll be self-disproving in most people’s minds.
Yeppers. Hopefully NC’s state legislative elections this fall will look a lot like Virginia’s last fall. With maybe a couple votes more in close races.
There’s an interesting conversation going on in several teacher Facebook groups: after Brody’s idiotic comments, a lot of teachers started making #thuglife memes, like “Did attendance 45 minutes late: #Thuglife” or, “Keep crackers in my closet for kids who come in hungry: #Thuglife.”
Then several black teachers came in and said, in essences, “Hey, white teachers using #thuglife? Don’t do that. Look at the word’s history and current usage, and just don’t.”
A lot of white teachers (me included, which I’m sure surprises nobody) agree. Other white teachers are all, “Well actually, it’s satire, I teach English so I know things, let me link you to “A Modest Proposal” so you’ll know what satire is!”
I think I’ve never seen a clearer need for intersectionality as I’m seeing here.
Oh, man. Maybe I shouldn’t have done this.
The legislature has been claiming that they’ve given teachers amazing raises, so what are we complaining about? Indeed, I’ve gotten some real raises over the last four years, the first time in my career–almost 33% over what I was earning when the Republicans took control in 2011.
But that accounts neither for the salary freezes that happened during the Great Recession, nor for inflation.
So I looked at all the salary schedules from 2007 through the current year, and figured out what I’d earned each year*. Then I adjusted all those salaries to 2007 dollars, so I could compare apples to apples, using an inflation calculator. Then I compared those adjusted salaries to the salary schedule posted in 2007, to see what I would have earned (in 2007 dollars) if the NCGA had done nothing except adjust 2007’s salary schedule for inflation.
With me so far?
Because of salary freezes under Democrats in 08, 09, and 10 (their last year in power), I lost almost $5,000 total in earnings (again, in 2007 dollars). Remember, that was mostly during the Great Recession.
Because the Republican legislator has never returned us to an inflation-adjusted equivalent to that 2007 salary schedule, from 2011-present I have lost $48,589 in earnings.
On the one hand, I’m glad to have some numbers with which I can counter Republican claims about how great they are for educators. On the other hand, goddammit, I coulda paid off my house by now!
So LHOD which category do you fall in? Union Thug or deluded simpleton? 
Best of luck!
United we bargain, divided we beg.
Why can’t it be both?
A question: are they objecting to the use of ‘thug’ generally, or just ‘thuglife’ specifically?
In order to throw Brody’s words back at him, ISTM that ‘thug’ really needs to be in there somewhere. Maybe #facultythugs or something like that?
I’ve argued that “union thug” has very different connotations than “thug” or “thuglife.”
Union thug: connotes generally but not exclusively white men working the picket line.
Thug: connotes black men prone to violence.
Thug life: connotes white people comparing themselves ironically to black men prone to violence, saying, “Look how calm and milquetoast I am compared to a real thug!”
I haven’t seen anyone specifically objecting to an ironic use of “union thug,” but then, I haven’t seen much ironic use of “union thug.”
See, the problem is that if you educate the people too much then they begin to realize that everything Republicans say about the economy/ tax cuts is bullshit.
Hey LHoD, I somehow never realized you were a teacher in NC! You might see my wife tomorrow!
She’s going downtown with a chunk of her school. It’s interesting because we had similar issues in Ohio where they have a Union. My mom (also an Ohio teacher) protested in a school a day or two quite some years ago IIRC. It seems it’s common for teachers to have issues with pay and quite a few other job related things. I don’t believe many people are surprised though.
I haven’t been checking the news about tomorrow, I’m used to being depressed with politics for teaching. Every time I see a quote about “teachers asking for a bigger salary just so they can have that job for $$!!” I kinda want that person to teach first grade for just one day. Can some of those people who think teachers get paid fine just listen to them talk?
Hope things go well for y’all tomorrow!