Teacher Strike Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Upcoming Book Takes An Inside Look At 2018 Teacher Strikes

In 2018, teachers and education workers in West Virginia went on strike for better pay and benefits in a labor action that ultimately spread to eight other states. Now, a new book titled ‘Rank and File Rebels’ takes a look at the movement in four of the states, including West Virginia. The book’s co-author and former West Virginia teacher Brendan Muckian-Bates sat down with reporter Chris Schulz to discuss.

Schulz: Okay, Brendan, can you explain to me what “Rank and File Rebels” is? What is this book about?

Muckian-Bates: “Rank and File Rebels” is a book that catalogs the genesis, history and trajectory of the 2018 strike wave in West Virginia, Kentucky, Arizona and Oklahoma. The book seeks to illuminate some of the diversity and experiences and political landscape that shaped the terrain in which educators were thrown into this sort of immediate flash in the pan moment.

In addition to that, the book catalogs what happened a year after the strike, and what some of the movements were among rank and file educators post-strike to continue to secure their demands. And ultimately, we finish the book by looking at what the COVID pandemic had done to these rank and file education waves.

Schulz: What exactly incited these labor actions in 2018?

After the 1990s strike in West Virginia, there was an attempt to plug the hole for the state health insurance plan, and to provide teachers with, I believe it was, a $5,000 pay increase over three years. What we saw in that interim period of about three decades, the level of investment in public education had slowly been chipped away in that period of neoliberal reforms. And once we get to 2018, we see a cool mixture of educators who are communicating across the entire state, using social media platforms to share their concerns, to show that any challenges that they’re facing isn’t a personal moral failing, it’s an issue of state funding. And that the only way to get past that is to directly organize amongst one another, being engaged in another large scale action, like we saw in 1990. Many of the folks that I had interviewed in the book, either their parents were teachers who went on strike in 1990, or individuals in their building, were on strike in 1990. And that long memory really inspired many educators to feel that they were simply doing what had already been done; they were going to do it again, and perhaps more successfully in their eyes.

Schulz: What made you want to write this book?

Muckian-Bates: Post-strike, I was invited to speak at the national or international conference Labor Notes in Chicago. And being in a crowded room of union members who supported West Virginia teachers were so in awe of what we did. Talking about our experiences really made me feel alive and made me feel that what we had done would have reverberations across the country and across the world. And having lived through that experience, I felt that as someone whose background was in history, that this was an important piece of historical fact that needed to be cataloged. Especially because as the strike petered out into other actions in Oklahoma, and Kentucky, and Arizona, that this was an important piece of history that needed to be written both from a narrative standpoint, but also for individuals who want to do this themselves. This is in many ways, a training manual of how to do that. So you’re not just approaching this as an academic, you were directly involved in this action.

Schulz: What was it like looking back on this, having had that personal experience with the events you’re writing about and researching?

Muckian-Bates: I very much felt that if a book like this was to be written, it had to be written by someone who had direct personal experience with it. Histories of labor actions tend to be written at a high academic level, or by folks who are not directly involved in those experiences. And so what can tend to happen is, they apply their own political bent to the narrative, or they try to explain certain perspectives in their own right, rather than seeing it directly from that experience.

I think what makes this book different, being that as co-author I was directly involved in the strike itself, I can see the challenges of doing this on your personal life. This isn’t simply an academic endeavor to me, this was my life. And I want others to understand that when you get involved in these types of actions, and you get involved in this type of organizing, there’s a lot of extraneous factors that need to be considered. It’s done for the sake of spreading this knowledge to other teachers who might be in similar situations as we were four years ago.

Schulz: Who are you hoping reads this book? And what do you hope they get out of it?

Muckian-Bates: I hope, first of all, that the teachers and service personnel read this book firstly, because we wrote it in many ways for them to understand the history, both of their movement, as well as what are some of the limitations and fears to overcome in taking collective direct action. Secondly, I hope that everyday union members who are outside of education understand what was at stake in the strikes, what we had to overcome in order to succeed and what the limitations that we faced were. And to many of the teachers I interviewed, it felt like we could have held out a bit longer.

Understanding what those limitations are, because from a national level, you can look at the West Virginia strikes and say they won everything they asked for. And in some cases, maybe we did. But many of the harshest critics are from rank and file teachers themselves who felt things could have been different. The rank and file caucus West Virginia United was started immediately following the strike as a way of continuing that legacy. I think it’s very critical for the listeners of West Virginia to look up West Virginia United and understand what this group seeks to do, because a lot has changed over a four year period.

“Rank and File Rebels” is scheduled to publish this fall through Colorado State University Open Press.

Where Are They Now? A Brief Overview Of 2021 W.Va. Education Legislation

This is a developing list and may be updated.

Updated on April 9, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

Education has been a top issue for lawmakers in this year’s West Virginia legislative session as learning was upended significantly amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Among those priority bills in the 60-day session included measures advancing school choice in K-12 education and establishing the West Virginia Jumpstart Savings Program in higher education.

One-third of K-12 students in West Virginia failed at least one core subject in fall 2020, according to the West Virginia Department of Education. The WVDE attributes this dip in learning to children being jostled back-and-forth from in-person, remote, virtual and hybrid schooling.

Connectivity was also a major issue for all counties in the state, and while education officials launched Kids Connect to create more than 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, strewn throughout all 55 counties for K-12 and higher education, the governor and education officials repeatedly said it was only a Band-Aid for a much larger problem that needs fixed.

State lawmakers introduced more than 200 education-related bills this year, but as with all years, only a handful of bills actually make it to the governor’s desk for a signature.

So, what got through and what didn’t? Here are just a few of the education bills that have garnered attention this year:

Charter School Expansion — SIGNED

HB 2012 was signed by Gov. Jim Justice on March 11 and will go into effect on June 1.

The bill expands on West Virginia’s current public charter school law passed two years ago. It allows for up to 10 physical public charter schools to be established in the state by 2023. The bill also allows for the creation of two, statewide virtual public charter schools, as well as one local virtual charter per county.

The measure also establishes the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board, which may act as an authorizer, meaning an entity that has the authority to approve or disapprove a proposed charter school.

West Virginia has not yet approved any charter schools.

Education Savings Accounts — SIGNED

HB 2013 would launch the Hope Scholarship Program. The bill was signed into law by the governor on March 27 and will go into effect on June 15.

The program creates education vouchers for public school students who are interested in changing to home or private school. A student could receive about a $4,600 voucher per year based on the current state School Aid Formula.

These vouchers would be used for things like tuition at a private school, tutoring or an after-school program.

Also, under the bill, if less than 5 percent of students take part in the program in its first year, in 2026, the program would open to all current West Virginia private and homeschool students, regardless of whether that student ever attended public school.

If all private and homeschooled students took part statewide, the program is estimated to cost about $100 million a year, according to the West Virginia Department of Education.

The Student Rescue Act — DEAD

HB 3217 would have created the Student Rescue Act. The bill had bipartisan support but ultimately, it did not make it to the governor’s desk.

The measure would have helped K-12 students catch up on schoolwork following the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. It would have provided students with concentrated summer courses to make up for instruction time, class credits and grade-level-specific skills lost due to the pandemic. The law would also have applied to any future pandemic or natural disaster that lasts longer than 21 days.

The bill’s lead sponsor was House Education Minority Chair Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, who said in committee that not all counties are planning to offer summer remediation efforts. He said this bill would have ensured the option would be made available in all 55 counties.

The bill did not make it out of its originating chamber before Crossover Day.

West Virginia Jumpstart Savings Program — SIGNED

HB 2001 was signed by the governor on March 19 and will go into effect on June 9.

The measure creates a tax-free savings plan for state residents who have completed school in a particular trade or vocation, like welding, plumbing, car maintenance or electrical work.

The program will allow individuals who have gone to a trade or vocational school to save for tools and equipment upon graduation.

The program is similar to the state’s SMART529 savings program used to save for college.

Making Work Stoppage By Public Employees Illegal — LAW W/O SIGNATURE

SB 11 became law without the governor’s signature on March 11 following its approval by the House and Senate. It will go into effect on June 2.

The measure codifies a 1990 decision by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals that declared strikes and work stoppages by public employees illegal. The legislation also follows teachers and service personnel walking off the job in 2018 and 2019.

The bill would make going on strike a cause for termination, but this decision would ultimately be made by county administrators. Pay for days missed due to a strike could also be withheld, although that pay could be reinstated when days are made up.

Restrictions on Transgender Student Athletes — HEADS TO GOVERNOR

Following consideration in the Senate on April 8, the House of Delegates voted 80-20 to concur with the Senate’s version of HB 3293 just one day later. The bill now heads to the governor for consideration.

The bill has seen drastic changes since it left its originating chamber. As amended by the Senate, the measure would restrict transgender students’ access to women’s sports in middle, high school and college.

Under the bill, student athletes who are cisgender, meaning someone whose gender is exclusively the one they were assigned at birth, can go to their county boards of education, or their state higher education institution, and file a lawsuit against transgender competitors if they feel “aggrieved” or “harmed” by a violation of this bill.

West Virginia is one of more than two dozen states that have pushed similar legislation this year.

The Open and Equal Opportunities in Student Activities Act — DEAD

SB 28, would have allowed private and homeschool students to participate in extracurricular activities like sports and band at public schools. However, the measure was referred to the Senate Committee on Rules while on second reading and never made it out of the chamber before Crossover Day.

The bill would have created the Open and Equal Opportunities in Student Activities Act, formerly called the Tim Tebow Act — so named for the former professional American athlete Tim Tebow, a Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Florida, who was homeschooled.

Similar legislation has been considered by the West Virginia Legislature in previous years but has never made it to the governor for a signature.

Making FAFSA a Requirement of High School Graduation — DEAD

HB 2702 was the first piece of legislation in the 2021 session to be rejected on the floor of a full chamber. It was rejected by the House of Delegates on March 25.

The measure would have made filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, a requirement to graduate high school in West Virginia. The goal of the bill was to ensure all high school students filled out the application so they might learn how much aid they may receive when considering college.

Higher education officials reported prior to the start of the legislative session that FAFSA applications in the state were down by 25 percent.

Officials said this was largely due to students being out of schools because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In-Field Master’s Degrees — LIKELY DEAD

SB 15 passed out of the Senate back in February and was sent to the House Education Committee on Feb. 19, but it was never put on the committee’s agenda.

The measure would have prohibited teachers from receiving a pay increase for any education level above a bachelor’s degree unless they have received a master’s degree that directly connects to the areas in which they teach. By doing this, that teacher would then be eligible to receive a bump in pay.

Supporters of the legislation said it would help keep qualified teachers in the classroom, while those in opposition said it would make getting a step increase in pay more restrictive.

Related to West Virginia County School Boards — LIKELY DEAD

SB 588 made it out of the Senate on March 29 and was sent to the House Education Committee a day later, but it was never put on the committee’s agenda.

The measure would have required county school boards and county superintendents to comply with instructions given by the West Virginia Board of Education.

The ability for the state BOE to take control of a county school district is already in state law, but advocates of the bill said the legislation would have created steps for the districts to follow to avoid a full takeover.

The bill came after tensions arose between the state BOE and a handful of county school boards that opted to keep students in remote learning models out of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

West Virginia House Passes Anti-Strike Bill, Sends It Back To Senate

The West Virginia House of Delegates has passed a bill making it clear that strikes by public employees are illegal. Despite a Republican-led supermajority in the House and Democrats standing alone to oppose the legislation, the measure thinly passed the lower chamber Tuesday.

Senate Bill 11 seeks to codify a 1990 decision by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals that declared strikes and work stoppages by public employees illegal. The legislation also follows teachers and service personnel walking off the job in 2018 and 2019.

The measure would make going on strike a cause for termination, although that decision would be left in the hands of county administrators. Pay for days missed due to a strike could also be withheld, although that pay could be reinstated when days were made up.

After quickly making its way through the Senate, the House decided to skip the committee process and immediately consider the measure on the floor. As amended last week on the House floor, Senate Bill 11 now allows for extracurricular activities to occur on days when a strike takes place.

On Tuesday, House Education Chair Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, briefly explained the bill on the floor. Democrats then stood to oppose the bill and offered a string of arguments against the measure.

Del. Ed Evans, D-McDowell — a retired teacher — said the measure was unnecessary and would do nothing to curb public employees from walking off the job if they were forced to fight for better pay, benefits or working conditions.

“We already have it in law already. It’s against the law to do it. But they did it anyway,” Evans said. “And they’ll do it again — regardless if we pass this bill — if it’s bad enough.”

Evans said Senate Bill 11 was a “threat” against teachers and that the Republican-led Legislature was “doubling down” on the walkouts led by school employees in recent years.

“I’ve walked those [picket] lines and I’ll walk them again. I’ll be right there with them when it gets bad enough and they have to do it. Let’s quit threatening our teachers,” Evans said.

Del. Cody Thompson, D-Randolph, also argued against the proposal and said it was retaliatory for recent strikes.

Thompson, who also works full time as a public educator and was first elected to office following the strike in 2018, said teachers ensured that students were cared for while school workers weren’t on the job.

“The previous two work stoppages that we had, the teachers and the service personnel in this state made sure that every kid was fed — we got food ready, we delivered food,” Thompson said. “We had stations where kids could come and be supervised in community centers. Within those two work stoppages, we still made sure we had 180 days of instruction and 200 days of employment.”

Democrats also made mention of West Virginia’s long history with the labor movement. Del. Shawn Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, noted that union activist Mother Jones spoke on the Capitol steps in August 1912 following strikes by coal miners.

“Mother Jones spoke to us about unfair wages and conditions that they were going through in the mines,” Hornbuckle said. “This is deeper than teachers. Don’t forget where you came from.”

Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, also touched on labor issues in his floor speech against the bill. He pointed out that during the strikes of 2018 and 2019, many teachers wore red as a nod to the Battle of Blair Mountain.

“Because it was clear educators and school service personnel weren’t here for just [themselves]. They were here for our history,” Fluharty said. “They were here for every coal miner that came before them — every blue collar worker that came before them. Because this state was built on the foundation from the labor crisis.”

Ellington later closed debate on the bill and argued that the bill focuses on all public employees and not simply educators.

“It just says they will not get paid. It still states that it’s a condition that they could be fired. But it also says that we’re not going to use those extra instructional days to make up time for a strike. That’s all it does. It’s not targeting one group or another,” Ellington said.

In the end, Senate Bill 11 passed the House on a narrow 53-46 margin, with 23 Republicans breaking from the majority to oppose the measure.

With the bill changing form since being passed by the Senate, the proposal now heads back across the Capitol to the upper chamber.

West Virginia House Amends Anti-Strike Bill, Removes Section Prohibiting Extracurricular Activities

The West Virginia House of Delegates has made a major change to a bill that deems strikes by public employees illegal. Lawmakers in the lower chamber adopted an amendment that now would allow extracurricular activities on strike days.

Senate Bill 11, as passed earlier this week in the upper chamber, would have prohibited extracurricular activities for students from taking place on days when a strike was occurring. The proposal also calls for school worker pay to be withheld — but returned if strike days are made up.

House leadership decided to bypass referencing the bill to any committees, which essentially put the measure on the fast-track to passage.

But with Senate Bill 11 on the floor amendment stage in the House, delegates removed a section that would have stopped extracurricular activities on days school workers are on strike.

Del. Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, was the lead sponsor of the amendment. He said that section of the bill was unfair to students, noting that a whole host of school employees — from teachers to cafeteria staff or other service personnel — might be walking off the job.

“The problem is, you don’t just punish the students in that school. You’re punishing the students in the other school that would be having that event,” Rowe said. “And this could happen without any notice to anybody.”

House Education Chair Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, agreed with Rowe and supported the amendment.

“I think this is really about the kids,” Ellington said. “That’s what our purpose is here — to make it better for them — and we shouldn’t penalize them.”

Del. Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, spoke against the amendment. He argued that allowing for extracurricular activities on strike days could create a situation in which a teacher could miss the school day but be allowed to coach a game.

“We’re telling those that violate that law, that very important law, that they need to be in this classroom [and] that it’s okay — because the thing that they really enjoy doing after school — that they can be allowed to do with their students,” Gearheart said.

Lawmakers voted 75-24 to adopt the amendment to Senate Bill 11, with more than 50 Republicans signing on to the change.

The measure — which seeks to codify a 1990 opinion by the state Supreme Court that says strikes by public employees are illegal — follows walkouts by West Virginia teachers in 2018 and 2019.

Senate Bill 11 advanced to third reading and is slated to be up for passage Friday in the House. With the bill being altered by the House, the Senate would need to consider the changes.

West Virginia Senate Passes Anti-Strike Bill, Teacher Unions Call It Retaliation

Three years to the day since teachers and school service personnel in West Virginia went on strike calling for better pay and benefits, the state Senate has passed a bill making it clear that walking off the job is illegal for public employees.

Senate Bill 11 would codify a 1990 decision from the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals that stated work stoppages and strikes by public employees are illegal. The legal opinion did little to curb teacher strikes in two recent consecutive years — first in 2018 and then again in 2019.

Members of the upper chamber voted 21-12 Monday to approve Senate Bill 11, with Sen. David Stover, R-Wyoming, joining Democrats in voting against the bill. Sen. Bill Hamilton, R-Upshur — who frequently sided with teachers and their unions in recent legislative sessions — was absent.

The legislation calls for pay to be withheld for missed days — although that pay could be reinstated if missed days are made up — and for extracurricular activities to be prohibited on days missed due to a strike.

Democrats who spoke to the bill on the floor argued that the bill is retaliation for the strikes in recent years.

Through a line of questioning directed at Senate Education Chair Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, Sen. Richard Lindsay, D-Kanawha, noted that Senate Bill 11 was single-referenced and was not taken up by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Lindsay also pointed out that legislation to increase teacher pay and improve benefits was not considered until teachers went on strike in 2018. He said it would create more harm than good — causing some teachers to leave the state and others to consider not working here.

“I understand that what this legislation seeks to do is codify what’s already in common law. But the timing of it is suspicious,” Lindsay said. “We’ve already heard testimony, even though this comes out of the education committee, that this bill does nothing to encourage teachers to stay or bring teachers to West Virginia.”

But Republicans, like Senate Finance Chair Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said the bill was about “the children” and keeping them in the classroom.

“When work stops in the schools of West Virginia, our kids are not in the classroom. Mr. President, that has been illegal for years,” Tarr said. “The Supreme Court ruled on that and said that we now have case law — they made case law — that says such work stoppages are illegal. So how did it proceed and we have no consequence for the past couple of work stoppages that have happened?”

Sen. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, noted that when West Virginia teachers walked off the job, they made sure children were fed every day that school was out. He argued that the bill targeted educators for the strikes in 2018 and 2019.

“This bill does nothing to move West Virginia forward. It does nothing to further that profession. It’s mean-spirited — and I think it’s in retaliation for people standing up for what they believe in,” Caputo said.

In closing debate on Senate Bill 11, Rucker said the language of the bill only offered clear guidance to counties in how to deal with a strike.

“This bill simply clarifies work stoppages are illegal. This bill simply clarifies that it was not the legislature’s intent to facilitate illegal work stoppages,” Rucker said. “This actually frees up the county boards of education to know how to act in the future. This is not a retaliatory bill.”

The Senate’s passage of the measure drew swift criticism from the leaders of teacher unions, including West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee and American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia President Fred Albert. Both union leaders called the bill retaliatory.

“We’ve known since 1990 that it was illegal to strike in West Virginia,” Lee told West Virginia Public Broadcasting by phone. “But when you’re pushed to a point, you’re willing to take a stand and you’re willing to risk the consequences that are involved.”

In a separate phone call, Albert echoed Lee’s comments.

“It was illegal in 2018. It was illegal in 2019. It was illegal in 1990 for teachers and others to strike,” Albert said. “We should be providing jobs, we should be creating jobs in West Virginia and we should be supporting our public educators. I just don’t know what this bill really does.”

Senate Bill 11 now heads to the House of Delegates for consideration.

West Virginia Senate Education Committee Advances Anti-Strike Bill

A committee of West Virginia lawmakers has approved a bill that would make it clearly illegal for public workers to go on strike. The effort comes after educators held two strikes in recent years.

According to Senate Bill 11, public educators who strike would have their pay deducted for days missed. The bill would also prohibit extracurricular activities on days canceled by a strike.

West Virginia teachers and school service personnel went on strike for nine classroom days in 2018 — calling for better pay and benefits, among other demands.

Before teachers went on strike in late February that year, Republican Attorney Patrick Morrisey said work stoppages or strikes by public employees are illegal.

In 2019, educators and service personnel walked off the job again — this time to oppose a complex omnibus bill that opened the door for charter schools, among other reforms. A version of that bill was passed in a special session that summer.

During Tuesday’s meeting of the upper chamber’s education committee, Sen. Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, questioned committee attorney Hank Hager as to whether extracurricular activities were allowed during past strikes.

“That really doesn’t differ from what we’ve had in the past, does it, in terms of extracurricular activities?” Plymale asked. “I didn’t think that they were able to participate on the day if they were canceled.”

Hager told committee members that — while he was unable to cite anything in state code — extracurricular activities have, as a practical matter, been canceled during strikes.

Sen. Mike Romano, D-Harrison, argued that the bill would pull authority away from county school boards when making decisions that affect their employees during a strike.

“We seem to love local control when it benefits local control — and we seem to love centralized control, and we want centralized control,” Romano said. “I mean, this is really taking away local control of the education system from the counties and putting it in the hands of this ever changing and often wavering body of political elected officials.”

Senate Education Chair Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, chimed in to say that the bill does not affect local control in the way Romano was trying to imply.

“They still have the flexibility of their school calendar. That still exists. We’re not taking that away,” Rucker said. “It still lets them handle personnel decisions on their own.”

Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, asked Hager to clarify about pay deductions for missed days and whether that pay could be reinstated. Grady is a public school teacher who won election for the first time in November after defeating then-Senate President Mitch Carmichael in the June primary.

Carmichael was seen by many teachers and service personnel as an adversary during the 2018 and 2019 strikes. Unions publicly campaigned against him in the 2020 election cycle.

“If students are not in school or school is canceled, for some reason — due to not having enough personnel to staff — those days will still have to be made up at the end of the year? So those personnel would still get paid for making up those days?” Grady asked.

Hager told committee members that educators would have to make up any work days missed and could then have deducted pay reinstated.

On a voice vote Tuesday, members of the Senate Education Committee agreed to advance Senate Bill 11 to the floor.

While the votes of each member was indiscernible, Sen. Bob Beach, D-Monongalia, and Romano both requested to have their votes be recorded as “no.”