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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 82/No. 10 March 12, 2018
(front page)
W.Va. teachers: ‘We’re fighting for all workers’
School workers’ struggle wins broad support in W. Virginia
Charleston Gazette-Mail/ Chris Dorst via AP
West Virginia teachers, school workers, miners and other supporters at
Feb. 26 strike rally in Charleston. Fight won widespread solidarity,
taking on aspects of broader social movement.
BY MARY IMO-STIKE
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Chanting “We are united!” and singing “We’re not
going to take it any more!” thousands of teachers, school workers and
their supporters locked hands above their heads on the steps of the
state Capitol here Feb. 26. All the state’s school workers — teachers,
bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians and others — walked out four
days earlier, closing all the schools in West Virginia’s 55 counties.
For every school day of the walkout they rallied outside and inside the
Capitol and at schools across the state. This is the first teachers
strike in West Virginia since 1990.
“This all started with the health premiums,” Maria McCoy Hanna, a
middle-school teacher in Greenbrier County, told the Militant. “Premiums
are going up and I pay that out of pocket. The pay raise won’t even
cover that.”
In West Virginia the state legislature decides on the wages and benefits
for all workers in the public school system. Arguing that the state
lacks the funds for health coverage, government officials voted to put
this on the backs of workers. Legislators voted to increase the premiums
and limit wage raises to 1 percent for each of the coming five years,
outraging the workers.
Union locals in each of the 55 counties then met and members voted in
all of them to authorize a statewide walkout before the end of the
legislative session March 10.
Thousands of teachers and school service workers, joined by coal miners,
students and other allies of their fight, gathered outside the Capitol
Feb. 17, chanting “Fed up, fired up!” and “Enough is enough!
The legislature responded three days later by freezing imposition of the
new premiums for 16 months and raising wages 2 percent in the first year.
West Virginia ranks 48th out of the 50 states in teachers’ wages. There
are hundreds of vacancies across the state with neighboring states
offering substantially higher pay.
“I took a $16,000 pay cut when I moved here from Kentucky,” McCoy Hanna
said. “I work two jobs. I have to. I have student loans.”
The workers originally announced a two-day strike. “It is clear that
education employees are not satisfied with the inaction of the
legislative leadership or the governor to date,” the American Federation
of Teachers, West Virginia Education Association and West Virginia
School Service Personnel Association — the unions that represent the
workers in the school system — said in a joint statement Feb. 23,
extending the strike.
“We’ve got to stay out, and stay out together,” Scott Whitt, a Raleigh
County school bus driver, told the Militant at the Feb. 26 rally. “A
‘rolling strike’ where only four or five counties at a time are out
would be bad. That would be like the ‘selected strikes’ they started in
the mines. It weakens us.”
State officials declared the work stoppage illegal, as they did in 1990.
But so far they haven’t attempted to enforce the order.
“An injunction is not going to change anything,” Whitt said. “My
grandfather was a UMWA miner. Back then, coal barons would have your
house burned down if they wanted to. This is labor’s last chance. We
have nowhere to go if we don’t fight now. Look at the nonunion workers
at Walmart. They have no leg to stand on.”
Widespread support across the state
United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts spoke at the Feb. 26 rally,
calling on “every union member in the state of West Virginia — coal
miners, steelworkers, rubber workers, electrical workers, everybody — to
stand around these workers.”
Students in 12 counties released a joint open letter backing their
teachers.
The workers have taken steps to minimize the impact of the walkout on
other workers, aided by a broad social movement in their support.
Churches, community centers, recreation centers and other groups have
opened their doors to give children a place to go during school hours,
which means their parents don’t have to miss work to care for them. Food
drives and soup kitchens have been organized to make sure children who
rely on schools for their lunch won’t go hungry.
Workers in West Virginia have faced an economic and social crisis for
years. International competition and government regulations have caused
a drop in demand for area coal, a key industry in the state. And coal
bosses closed down or shifted production elsewhere to escape the United
Mine Workers union. Coal mining jobs have plummeted in the state by 40
percent over the last five years. Today West Virginia has one of the
highest rates of deaths from opioid overdoses in the country.
“In these circumstances, there is a lot of social tension building up
here,” Thorn Roberts, who works in his family’s oil and gas business in
Elizabeth, West Virginia, told the Militant Feb. 24. Pointing to miners’
labor battles 100 years ago, he said, “A lot has gone wrong since then.
But the teachers strike may be an advance rumbling of something, like a
preliminary seismic shock.”
Emma Johnson contributed to this article.
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Organize the unorganized! Build fighting unions!
Bosses attacks unravel miners gains against black lung
Walmart winning ‘retail wars,’ putting squeeze on its worker
‘We can build unions that inspire workers to fight’
Ukraine miners fight bosses, government over back pay
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