OR House Republicans Want to Make It Illegal for Teachers to Strike - eviltoast
  • qooqie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Making it illegal for people to strike seems to violate our rights for freedom of expression. Or am I misinterpreting that right? I’m a little fuzzy when it comes to precedents and shit for laws and rulings

    • admiralteal@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Striking is not the same as speech. It goes far beyond. They can’t stop teachers from protesting or speaking out. No law could do that. They can, however, immediately fire and replace anyone who refuses to work, absent strike protections. They can call in the Pinkertons to break picket lines absent strike protections.

      It’s not about expressing themselves. It’s about collective bargaining with the threat of the employer fully losing access to the labor if they refuse.

      And the NLRA specifically does not cover public sector employees, so they can absolutely ban teachers from striking. They shouldn’t, but they certainly could.

    • regul@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      You would think, wouldn’t you? But this approach is quite common. Biden’s “deal” to prevent the rail strike was to make it illegal for them to strike. Air traffic controllers were also legally prevented from striking in the 80s, but did a wildcat strike anyway. Reagan fired all of them and then banned them from ever being rehired.