EDITORIAL: This is why teacher strikes are illegal in Nevada

If you want to know why teacher strikes are illegal in Nevada, consider the fiasco in Los Angeles.

Teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District recently walked off the job for three days. That kept more than 400,000 students from attending classes. It was a major stress for parents who had to come up with child-care arrangements. Because many students eat a majority of their meals at school, district officials scrambled to make sure they could provide food.

Those urgent priorities make it easy to overlook that the union action also disrupted student learning. Children in that struggling school district have a hard enough time as it is. Only a quarter of fourth graders are proficient in reading, according to the Nation’s Report Card. Fewer than 20 percent of fourth graders are proficient in math. Those numbers are shockingly low, but they’re comparable to the troubling results in the Clark County School District.

It would be counterproductive enough if L.A. teachers went on strike in a bid to improve student achievement. At least that would be a worthy cause. But teacher unions have long made it obvious that student success isn’t a primary or even secondary concern.

On the surface, union members walked out to support a labor dispute between the administration and the support staff, represented by Service Employees International Union Local 99. The district was offering custodians, bus drivers and cafeteria workers a 23 percent pay raise and a 3 percent bonus. SEIU Local 99 wanted a 30 percent hike and an additional $2-an-hour increase. After the three-day work stoppage ended, the district and union reached a deal that included 30 percent day increases and retroactive pay between $4,000 and $8,000.

In fact, this was a power play by the teachers. The teachers union is currently in negotiations with the district as well. You can be sure it wants a massive pay hike for educators. The implied threat is obvious. If the district doesn’t capitulate to its financial demands, the teachers union will shut down the district — again.

It’s one thing for employees at a private company to engage in a work stoppage. But strikes by public employees are strikes against the public. This is why even President Franklin D. Roosevelt opposed public-sector collective bargaining. It is also why Nevada law makes it illegal for government employees to strike. But the law isn’t enough. Nevada also needs public officials who have the courage to take legal action if union officials ignore the law and walk out anyway.

Those who work for the taxpayers shouldn’t have more power than the taxpayers who support them.