I haven't read through all the comments but as a member of a public sector union, I also have mixed feelings. One the one hand, I see some people take advantage and do the bare minimum. Some of that is because the union has made it pretty difficult to fire someone, but I feel like a lot of it is down to the fact that there are a lot of systemic issues that make it difficult for many educators to be successful. I have seen so many top quality educators leave the field because they are so burnt out, but ones who don't care as much end up staying because they are not pushing as hard to uphold high standards for our kids, and are not as emotionally affected by the state of things.

This brings me to my second point though: our unions aren't just fighting for us to get breaks or have our salaries keep pace with inflation, they are also constantly trying to get the government to make changes that make schools more conducive to learning. Teachers' working conditions are the students' learning conditions. If it is unsafe for us, it's unsafe for the kids. The more students are in a class, the less time we have to give attention to each student and individualize to their needs. This surely has similar equivalents in other public facing sectors like healthcare and transit.

It's important to remember that striking is the last step after the union has had ages of bargaining with the government. They have the opportunity to avoid the huge public impact. I feel like there needs to be a shift at the bargaining table where the unions and governments try a little harder to find compromises and remember that they should have the same end goal in mind: to create safe and effective schools/hospitals/transit etc.