Cantabrigians, like their counterparts throughout the nation, expressed ambivalence to the workers in their midst in the wake of Chicago’s violent Haymarket Affair and the trial of the so-called “Chicago Eight.” Over the next three decades, workers tried to ease tensions while advocating for better conditions.

Teachers and administrators have been offered an effective salary increase way under current levels of inflation, be evaluated based on test scores and are being asked to take on bigger class sizes and give up consultation on transfers. They’re even being asked to accept assignments as bus and sidewalk and cafeteria monitors.

Public meetings this week look at approvals and timelines for the next set of bike lanes and a study of their business impacts, a 400-foot tower for Kendall Square that would be the city’s tallest, a pause on office and lab development around Alewife, a possible guaranteed income program for the city’s poorest and much more.

The City Manager’s Office has blown past another deadline for setting a telework policy for municipal employees, this time to deliver a report and recommendations to the City Council at its March 21 meeting. The latest missed deadline was signaled weeks earlier by the city manager’s indignation about being questioned.

Gig-economy employers such as Uber and Instacart, and a state bill that could free them from obligations expected for companies with full-time workers, were condemned Monday by city councillors as “trying to put the screws” to working-class people, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology drew criticism for “union-busting” in the run-up to a vote.

The Cambridge Education Association moved stalled contract negotiations with Cambridge Public Schools out from behind closed doors and into the court of public opinion this week via letters and social media and by demonstrating outside the building where the School Committee meets.

Public meetings this week look at getting bike lane advice and finding solutions for homelessness; the aftermath of a student protest and appointing a permanent superintendent; and the future of Cambridge Street; and getting town-gown reports from Harvard, Hult, Lesley and MIT.

Resident doctors at Cambridge Health Alliance – physicians in training after graduating from medical school – say the health care system is refusing to give them a fair contract after relying on them for frontline care during the pandemic.

Interim schools superintendent Victoria Greer has a clean slate from which to improve things and to not play the game the usual way. A fresh start that focuses on data and gets widespread buy-in for a reset presents real hope for Cambridge Public Schools.

Public meetings this week look at a big leap proposed for real estate fees that build affordable housing, “green new deal” zoning for Cambridge, a condominium conversion law and bubble tea and a relocated Ben & Jerry’s for Porter Square.