More than 37,000 workers at the Kaiser Permanente health care corporation in California have voted to authorize a strike in October over unfair labor practices and understaffing. The walkout would be the nation’s largest strike in more than 20 years.

Fifty percent of teachers say they’ve considered leaving the profession over low pay, stress and a lack of respect.

Educators in California’s Bay Area ended their three-week strike on June 9, enabling them to be back in their classrooms for the final week of school. The strike, the New Haven Unified School District’s first, saw nearly 600 teachers, school counselors, psychologists, speech therapists and nurses join picket lines outside their schools in a fight over pay.

Some 18,000 teachers in the Clark County School District in Nevada have vowed to strike if the state doesn’t come through with funding to pay for salary increases without cuts to the classroom.

With the UFT’s support, Farah Louis won the special election on May 14 to fill the New York City Council seat left vacated by Jumaane Williams when he became the city’s public advocate. 

Public school teachers in California are forced by state law to pay for their own substitute teachers when they take extended sick leave.