From the people I talked to, it was mostly about morale and the work environment, but certainly, the erosion of wages and job security increased the economic risk of being a teacher. I&#x27;m not sure the numbers work out for giving up 15 years of salary in the hope of having a slightly higher pension.<p>I think that an unusual problem for public sector employees is that their wages are public knowledge, and as a result, are a target of resentment.<p>Going forward, I expect to see more of a relationship between pay and skill. As I said, the best teachers are the ones who are leaving.<p>Granted, I&#x27;m not wholeheartedly pro union, but I see some areas where unions have served a vital role with no obvious replacement. One is to function as a labor movement in general. The unions weren&#x27;t perfect at it, but as the unions have been effectively defeated, nobody else has stepped up to speak for workers.<p>The other has been to make certain occupations -- such as teaching -- worth the risk of pursuing as a career, by providing a trustworthy career roadmap. Other countries provide such a roadmap through government oversight of education -- perhaps the state functions as a union in countries with more pro-labor governments. But our governments haven&#x27;t stepped up to serve that role. Again, the teachers union wasn&#x27;t perfect (most teachers believed that it needed to be reformed), but nobody has figured out an alternative way to make teaching career-worthy, or how to make schools work if teaching ceases to be a career.