Working people

 A recent Washington Post article, Must Reads by T,J, Ortenzi, 6/13/2021, gave the following summation of what most workers want, yes better pay but also,

I know of teachers around Oregon and likely the United States who have left positions they have had for several years for a district that provides child care. In our recent chaos, new parents had to make decisions about staying home with a newborn and taking a leave from their teaching because the district refused to accommodate them. It was CDL afterall, why shouldn't a new parent be able to stay home. But in some districts all teachers were expected to come to the school building and do their CDL from their classrooms. Which made the decision for most teachers, stay home do CDL from home for 2/3 pay. Pregnant? Yes, you must attend PLCs in person with your PLC partners, everyone is wearing masks. 

And that is just teachers, I have no idea the impact on other professions. Teachers were expected to give grace to their students, understand how hard this for the students. Yes, yes we know it's hard for you, but no grace for you. Have a difficult time with CDL? Here's the PD for that and now you are fixed and will do better. Engagement a problem? That's on you for not energizing your lessons. 

I personally had a real issue with recognizing students once we got back to in person teaching. I was totally face blind. If a student didn't sit in their assigned seat I marked them absent, because well I couldn't tell who was where most of the time. I was not one of those teachers who marked a student absent because they weren't sitting their designated seat. If I marked a student who was present absent, that was all on me.

I'll be moving on at the end of this school year, in fact only three days left this school year. I have not found a new position yet and thankfully, I have a small nest egg that can carry me for a bit. I will not allow desperation to rule my choices. I will find what I believe to be the best fit for me. I rely on the district I may enter to decide that I am the best fit.

No. 1. Workers want and need child-care options

Many parents don't have full-time schooling options and paying for child care can be very expensive so for some, “there's a calculation that financially, it makes more sense for them to to stay home with their kid, even if they have access to part-time schooling,” Rosenberg said.

This point, like the others on the list, is anecdotal because “there's a substantial lag between what's happening now and the official data analysis,” he said.

Last June, economics correspondent Heather Long cited a lack of child care as one of the biggest things holding back a U.S. recovery. 

Lockdowns may have eased, but child care can be prohibitively expensive. The cost hit an all-time high in 2020, rising 2.2 percent as the economy cratered, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

No. 2. Workers want a nimble safety net and consistency

After this week's story published, Rosenberg talked to a California restaurant owner who had been reaching out to former employees to ask what it would take to get them back to work.

The man said his former employees weren't “lazy” or trying to “milk the system” but had faced so many issues trying to enroll in unemployment benefits that they were wary of returning to workplaces that could easily be shut down again because of another outbreak or lockdown. 

State agencies that administer unemployment benefits have had huge delays, Rosenberg said. And like employees told the business owner: Why risk getting off employment when, six weeks from now, dining restrictions could return and suddenly they're trying to get back on the unemployment system again?

No. 3. Workers want more of a say

Before the pandemic, there was “increased momentum” in labor organizing, Rosenberg said. That didn't translate into substantial enrollment for the nation's unions during the pandemic, but it meant that people were more aware of workers’ asks for safety and greater income equality.