Why are school teachers allowed to strike when other critical public servant positions make striking illegal?

Question

Public school teachers play a vital role in today's society. Someone in such a critical position should not be allowed to strike just as individuals employed with the FAA and so on.

Answer 1

Critical public servant positions such as police and emergency responders (fire, EMTs, etc.) can cause people to die if they go on strike. Hence they are not legally allowed to strike. (They can still call in sick en masse such as the NYC "Blue Flu".) Teachers, however, will not cause such damage by striking so they are allowed to strike. While teachers do play a vital role in society, their temporary absence will not cause death to people.

Don't forget that strikes have played a vital role in limiting abuse of workers by their bosses. Teachers are no different and need this tactic to force local governments to do the right thing, e.g. better pay, smaller class size, etc. And yes, some unions have gone on strike for stupid, if not selfish, reasons, but that doesn't mean every strike is bad.

Answer 2

I've heard of Police and Fire Fighter strikes and I would say those are critical public servant positions...so I don't think any of it is illegal.

Answer 3

in actuality teachers are NOT allowed to srtike because they are city employees, in most cases...in NYC where I teach we have had 2 threatened stikes in the last 5 yrs...they never occur because of something called the Taylor Law which states that any city employee who strikes will be fined 2 days pay for each day on strike...