Scalawag is a new progressive Southern journal. Its reporter Rachel Garringer talked to the strike leaders and learned how they were able to organize a statewide wildcat strike in a right to work state.
She writes:
“While the work stoppage has ended, the decentralized, 55-county-wide, cross-sector strike in the heart of ‘Trump Country’ offers crucial insight into the contemporary South and the future of labor organization. What does it mean for a state that voted Republican in the most contested national election in decades to lead one of the largest labor uprisings in recent United States history? What can we learn from the ways in which teachers organized themselves across a mostly rural, geographically isolated state? How did they communicate with one another after they refused to follow statewide union leadership? How does this strike fit into a long history of radical labor organizing in West Virginia? And what were the personal motivations driving teachers, from the coalfields to the eastern panhandle and every county in between, to risk their jobs fighting for justice?
“In their own words, teachers explain why they went on strike, how this fight was about more than education, and what it means for a largely socially conservative state to tap into its deep roots of radical anti-corporate organizing.”
This is MUST reading.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great article. Thank you for posting this. Go WV teachers.
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Key lessons in West Virginia and Oklahoma was role officials at aft and Nea play as brakes and urging caution. Teachers on the ground are learning how to organize outside union leaders. They learned from Wisconsin debacle. Reaching out to public and other unions is a key.
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It’s an amazing achievement in a conservative mostly red state or any state for that matter. It gives one hope for unions and the labor movement, even with the inevitable Janus decision.
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Remember Matewan! West Virginia has been at the forefront of the labor union movement in the past. Fortunately this this time there was a peaceful outcome. The current Democratic party needs to re-learn how to talk to people about these issues, tell it like it is. Chauvinism is destructive. They were able to do it in the past and can do it again. Working people are under attack by a wannabe oligarchy that will do anything to maintain power. They want to do away with Social Security, any form of pension, and could care less about our health. They are after FDR and the New Deal as well as the schools our children attend. We need bold leadership of course, younger than 75, though I admire both Hillary and Bernie (I am Bernies age). West Virginia is a model again.
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Great article that reminded me of the first year of teaching in New York where we went on strike for twelve weeks. We didn’t have smart phones (it was 1975), and we also used a phone chain to share information. We met at teachers’ homes to strategize; it was a strange way to get to know fellow teachers. The West Virginia teachers organized and acted as a unit, and it was far more effective than rolling strikes. This quote impressed me.
“We don’t pick and choose our students. We serve everyone. And if public schools are eroded to the point where we’re not trusted to do that, where we don’t have the funding to do that, where teachers cannot afford to continue to work in these systems, then ultimately who’s gonna suffer the most?”
This statement reminded me of the same case that districts make when refusing to give Florida teachers a raise. They state they don’t have the money and cannot afford to offer a raise. This same excuse has been used for years so that wages have eroded so much that some teachers are on food stamps. If teachers are tired of being treated like beggers, they will follow West Virginia; organize, and take a stand.
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Good piece. The key thing for me is the LACK of political affiliation.
Democrats and Republicans have abandoned labor unions. Maybe it’s time for labor unions to dump politicians. The ideas behind labor unions are much more popular then politicians are.
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Because what really happened here? The political system failed. They would have kept cutting West Virginia public schools until there was nothing left.
There was a leadership hole and these teachers filled it. Political leaders simply did not care what happened to these schools. They let it reach the point where there was no other choice than to do something without political leaders.
Have you seen the photographs out of Oklahoma public schools? The political leaders in that state are destroying the public school system. If teachers don’t do something NO ONE ELSE WILL.
Which is extraordinary, really. That public schools have been abandoned by elites to THIS extent- that they have to CLOSE before they get their attention.
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Interesting that part of the impetus for the strike, according to the article, came from insulting and dehumanizing changes to the teachers’ health insurance plan.
I’d be willing to bet: similar changes coming to a state near…all of us. Time to fight back.
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No less important is the publication and the policy of independent news that is has. Read this for some refreshing ideas. https://www.scalawagmagazine.org/editorial-independence-policy/
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While West Virginia’s strike might be the beginning of a new era, it could just as easily mark the end of an old one. If the voters don’t gain an understanding of how the system is working against them they will react the same way as voters in WI did when Scott Walker undercut collective bargaining. By promoting the narrative that all taxes are confiscatory and any group that seeks a settlement to improve wages and working conditions is “greedy” Walker and the GOP succeeded in dividing voters against each other. And just as bad are the “reformers” who have convinced the public that privatization of public services and the competition in the marketplace will result in greater efficiency and thereby save the taxpayers gobs of money. The conservative and neo-liberal politicians are counting on the continued ignorance of voters. It is now up to teachers to educate them. If the unions hope to regain footing, they will need to lead this charge. https://wp.me/p25b7q-25X
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Ezra here, this might count as a personal plug, so Diane is welcome to delete it. I wrote about similar lessons learned over blog.edite.eu. (I’m from TN, but in a PhD cohort of five EU schools known as the European Doctorate in Teacher Education.
I think the major takeaway in the organizational efforts is solidarity beyond your own interests. The issues affecting teachers in many states extend to other public employees and the community at large. I’m only 32, so I don’t remember the glory days of organizing and neither do many educators my age or even older. But that solidarity seemed to be the secret sauce that has been missing from the past. One major contributor, perhaps, is that at least one of the organizers that started the secret FB group comes from the Industrial Workers of World. If you’re unfamiliar with industrial unions, they organize everyone. One Big Union. This is opposed to trade unions which really just stikes to a particular field, though there is definitely overlap. The way this played out is the secret group went from teachers to all public employees and then they put boots on the ground to help with child care and food drives.
The other is that there was a very specific issue that everyone could rally around: pay and healthcare. Plus, there was a red line. Raise pay, address PEIA. Trade unions, god bless them, have come to be very prone to compromise. It’s their job, really. But you can’t start from a comprimised position. So, when they came back with 5% for teachers and 3% for everyone else – later rejected by the senate, so the issue was made moot – with no promise on PEIA, it was rejected. It was always kind of wildcat, but that’s when it really ratched up a notch.
I’m looking into the pension issues in KY right now and I’m seeing a lot of the same. What is really wild is that district admin seems to be outright supportive of action in several parts of the state. I need to look into AZ.
Solidarity forever, y’all.
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