The law protects your right to engage in strike activity. The more of us who participate, the stronger position we are in to enforce our right to strike.
Since the 1970s, thousands of RAs and TAs across the US— including at NYU in 2005-6, at Columbia in 2004 and 2018, and at Harvard in 2019—have engaged in lawful strike activity without being fired. Beyond legal protections, mass participation is our best protection
Some more recent strikes in the education sector:
In Aug 2020, Grad workers in UMich went on strike for 10 days, winning better childcare options during the pandemic, more transparent COVID-19 testing protocols, and new police.
In fall 2020, Brooklyn Friends school teachers (part of our local union 2110) went on strike for two days, because their administration wanted to disband the union. They won in 48 hours.
In Spring 2018, the Graduate Employees’ Organization at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign went on strike for almost 2 weeks, winning some tuition waiver demands.
In February 2018, school teachers in West Virginia started one of the biggest strike waves in history of the country. 250K of them shut down each and every school over the entire state demanding higher pay and better health insurance.