When teachers strike, it disrupts the lives of students and their parents. A strike may last a day or several weeks, and school districts must find substitutes to teach while the teachers are out. Sometimes schools remain open during strikes, but learning is hampered and families must pay for private tutors or move to other cities for better education.
Thousands of contracts for education employees are bargained each year, but fewer than ten result in teacher strikes. Teachers can participate in a variety of dispute resolution methods, including mediation and fact-finding where an impartial third party helps the parties reach a solution. In addition, teachers can engage in concerted collective action by withdrawing their services to pressure political leaders to accept a settlement.
The first of its kind study finds that teacher strikes result in significant gains for teachers: Their salaries increase by 8 percent, or about $10,000 per year, and they get additional benefits such as lower class sizes, increased per-student spending, and investments in non-instructional staff like nurses and social workers. The authors also find that teacher strikes have no measurable negative effect on student performance and have only a small impact on the labor supply of mothers, but negatively affect the labor supply of fathers who earn less than their wives.
In 2022, some teachers across the country have walked out of school to protest low wages and health insurance costs, as well as to demand that their unions negotiate on behalf of their members’ concerns with broader social issues such as more community schools, the elimination of random searches of students, and legal support for immigrants. In 37 states and the District of Columbia, it is against the law for teachers to strike, and they lose two days’ pay for every day they are on strike.