Walkout? Strike? What’s the difference?
Oklahoma’s educators and state employees have been very careful not to call what they’ve planned for April 2 a strike.
Mostly, they’ve called it a walkout. Sometimes it’s been referred to as a job action.
So what’s the difference?
Between a strike and a walkout, virtually none, according to most definitions. In fact, some dictionaries list “strike” as the first definition of “walkout.”
Webster’s defines a strike, in the labor sense, as “to stop work in order to force an employer to comply with demands.” The word “strike,” in this sense, dates from 1768, when sailors at the docks of London took down or “struck” the top sails of their ships in support of demonstrators in the city.
A walkout, it could be argued, is a form of strike. It involves leaving work instead of not showing up for it — which, as it happens, is not what teachers and state employees plan for April 2. Walkouts are most often traced to the early 1800s, when women in New England textile mills walked off their jobs to protest wage cuts and working conditions.
“Job action” is a more general term applied to “unified activity by employees aimed at putting pressure on the employer without resorting to a strike.”
This probably best defines what state employees and most teachers have in mind come April 2.
Legally, neither can actually strike, although the law is a little fuzzier as it applies to teachers in this case.
The relevant statute says organizations and individuals may not strike or threaten to strike “as a means of resolving differences with the (local) board of education.” But the current dispute involves educators and the Legislature, not local school boards (at least not yet) or even the state board of education.
Many school boards, in fact, are suspending school operations in support of their teachers.
The situation is different for state employees. Sterling Zearley, executive director of the Oklahoma Public Employees Association, said state workers are requesting annual leave to protest at the Capitol on April 2.
But, he said, OPEA is not trying to shut down vital services like prisons and veterans centers, and that over the long run — if there is a long run — the job action is likely to take the form of picketing and other organized activities on days off.