Yes, they are. There are tons of teachers looking for jobs and in this economy, watch how fast solidarity goes down the drain when the chance to get a paycheck arises.

Good. At least the usual levels of harm being done by public school teachers will tail off.

That is the most absurd allusion. They are not a "group" deserving of rights, they are people who chose a profession and an employer. They have the right to agree to work for what their employer offers to pay or decline and seek employment elsewhere. The only reason they have been able to get away with their insufferable pretensions and outrageous demands is the government monopoly that has inflated their compensation and restricted their competition in ways that would have people screaming bloody murder if any of the so-called "monopolies" arising in the private sector or free markets attempted the same tactics. If these worthless reprobates are so good at their jobs and their function is so necessary, let them compete with private schools and private school teachers and ditch this tenure bullshit. You don't need academic freedom to teach math & ABCs and assign reading from textbooks selected at a level far above the classroom instructor's.

And on the other hand, if these drones, parasites and professional failures DO provide an urgently needed public service, then they should be taken out and shot for striking. The rule for police officers, who must risk their lives protecting society from the failures of the public school system, was "there is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, at anytime."
Police departments have no-strike clauses in the contracts with their PBA or FOP, and they get shot at, while getting paid much less than teachers, with more demonstrable good done.

Either teachers are necessary, in which case they should be held to the same standards and codes of behavior as other necessary-for-general-welfare public employees like police, fire and military personnel are; or they are hacks who have lucked into a cushy government gig where they use their union influence and huge war chests to put their supporters in office and have those same supporters dole out generous salary and benefit packages, and can never be fired because of non-competitive regulations on the employment of government functionaries.

They hell you do. What IS that climate concerning public unions? Where they can routinely assault and injure people at town hall events and political rallies without getting charged or even mentioned in the major media? Where they are routinely lionized by the media and political figures, except for a few officials portrayed as extremist for trying to reduce public expenses and the drain on the taxpayer during the most serious economic crisis in 60 years? As for "respect...for sticking to their guns" you simply demonstrate the bullshit double standards applied to these wastrels. When government hack or drone seeks more money from the tax-payers for what is supposed to be a desperately needed public function, and in doing so hold the supposed well-being and futures of CHILDREN hostage to their demands, that is called "principles" but when productive people in the private sector who provide goods and services to meet the demands & standards of actual customers, rather than unelected bureaucrats, attempt to charge what the market will bear for their product, and actually keep the money they make for themselves, then you and your ilk wail and shriek about "corporate greed" and "profiteering."

Of course they have. It will not still be an open market, and they will not be seeking remuneration based on what their skills would rightfully earn if their real customers were consulted in the matter. They will still need to fill useless slots and hire in numbers and based on criteria all determined by bureaucrats who have nothing to teach beyond holding down bureaucratic jobs. If it were truly a free market, they'd be able to hire desperate & hungry substitutes to replace the fired union lumps, and probably at lower salaries. At worst, they'd hire new teachers at the same rates as the fired ones, except the new hires would have the example of their now jobless colleagues to keep them from taking the children's futures hostage again. As it is, loosening up one little corner of the labyrinth will not help, because the system is so locked down that no relief can flow in.