Teachers in Portland, Oregon, walked off the job on Wednesday for the first day of a strike that shuttered schools for some 45,000 students in Oregon’s largest city.
Concerns over large class sizes, salaries that haven’t kept up with inflation and a lack of resources prompted the strike, one of the latest signs of a growing organized labor movement in the U.S. that’s seen thousands of workers in various sectors take to the picket lines this year.
“Our kids deserve more than teachers that are absolutely exhausted and at the end of their ropes,” said Sarah Trapido, a special education teacher at Kellogg Middle School.
