55 United: witness the power of the people

Before we turn our attention to the latest tawdry gossip surrounding the Trump reality show, causing news bulletins of substance to fade from our collective memory, I want to place the spotlight back on a resounding achievement still echoing off the mountains of West Virginia. I am speaking of the recent and massively successful teacher’s strike.

“We’d like to have a decent wage. And we’d like to have our PEIA [Public Employee Insurance Agency] fixed. We want them to quit trying to take our seniority and attacking our leaders in legislation.” — Betsy Atwater, Fayette County teacher

Prior to striking, teacher pay in West Virginia ranked 48th in the nation. Health insurance premiums were skyrocketing with no end in sight. Unions had been systematically declawed by anti-labor legislation for years. Hell, the strike was technically illegal. And yet for nine days, every public school across the state was shuttered. From all of West Virginia’s 55 counties, educators descended on Charleston to demand a raise and better health insurance.

And they won.

“We’re going to school tomorrow. We got everything we asked for.” — Heather Acord, elementary schoolteacher from Wayne County

When union negotiators announced an initial compromise deal, rank-and-file strikers held firm, chanting “55 United” outside the state capitol. At last, lawmakers agreed to their demands: a 5% pay raise was passed for teachers and school support staff, while a health insurance cost freeze was enacted through mid-2019.

The success of striking teachers in West Virginia has proven inspirational to long-suffering educators in several other states. There is now talk of striking in Oklahoma, where lack of funding has forced many districts to switch to a four-day school week; in Arizona, a state with a multimillionaire governor and an average teacher pay that, by some measures, ranks dead last; and in Kentucky, where teachers’ pensions are constantly on the chopping block.

“This is a state that can’t keep teachers. What are they going to do, fire everyone who goes on strike?” — Molly Jaynes, third-grade teacher from Oklahoma City

The lessons of the West Virginia teacher strike are clear: when the many organize with purpose in the face of injustice, when citizens gather outside the halls of power to demand decent pay for noble work, when working women and men take to heart the creed ‘strength in numbers’, they can win. Let this not be a footnote of an otherwise outrageous and tumultuous 2018. Let this be an example to emulate, to follow, to guide us to a better tomorrow.