HomeMy WebLinkAboutTeacher unions see momentum build with West Virginia strike - Metro - 03/07/2018 - Metro - 03/07/20183/8/2018 Teacher unions see momentum build with West Virginia strike
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By: Carolyn Thompson The Associated Press, Published on Wed IMar 07 201
As teachers in West Virginia noisily celebrated a 5 per cent raise that ended their nine -day
walkout, momentum was building elsewhere for similar protests over pay and benefits for the
nation's public school teachers.
Teachers in Oklahoma and Arizona are contemplating actions of their own amid growing
frustration over meagre pay. Teachers and staff in eight Kentucky school districts were planning
"walk in" rallies Thursday to protest proposed cuts to their retirement benefits. Teachers in
Pittsburgh reached a tentative agreement after threatening a strike, and hundreds of educators
held demonstrations this week in Jersey City, New Jersey.
The unions' victory in the West Virginia strike has given a boost to organizers who say the
national spotlight on teacher pay is long overdue.
"To be able to do that there? I think people in Arizona started looking at each other saying,
'Wow!"' said Noah Karvelis, an art teacher in Phoenix who helped launch a campaign urging
Arizona teachers to wear red Wednesday as a show of solidarity. The demonstration was meant
to gauge interest in stronger action by teachers, who received a 1 per cent pay increase this
year, Karvelis said.
From West Virginia, which has some of the nation's lowest teacher salaries, unions heard familiar
stories of educators struggling to get by. The teachers behind the walkout that shuttered public
schools statewide said the 2 per cent pay raise initially proposed would not have covered their
rising health insurance costs.
Some of the teachers who returned to classrooms on Wednesday said they hope unions around
the country will be encouraged by what they accomplished.
"I do think this strike can be the start of something big nationally," said Melinda Monks, a special
education teacher at Bridgeview Elementary in South Charleston, West Virginia. "Because the
United States, as Gov. (Jim) Justice says, has fallen behind in education, behind some of our
other nations, and I think it's time that teachers step forward and demand a more central role in
education and more respect for our profession."
Teacher unrest around the United States has grown as strong health care and retirement
benefits, viewed in the late 1980s and 1990s as a tradeoff to slower pay growth, have begun to
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Teacher unions see momentum build with West Virginia strike
erode at district or state levels, said Becky Pringle, vice-president of the National Educators
Association.
"They're really feeling it now and they're leaving all of their options open in terms of what kinds of
actions they are ready to take," she said.
The daily demonstrations and legislative back and forth were closely watched from Oklahoma,
where teachers union President Alicia Priest said large numbers of teachers are leaving the
profession and state because of funding cuts and compensation that lags behind surrounding
states by $5,000 to $20,000. The union there is pushing for pay raises of $10,000 over three
years.
"It certainly does embolden us," Priest said.
Nationally, the average teacher's salary was $58,950 in 2017, according to the National Center
for Education Statistics, more than $10,000 above what teachers earn in West Virginia,
Oklahoma and Arizona.
Tom Ramming, an educational policy professor at the University at Buffalo, attributed much of
West Virginia's impact to its statewide scope, whereas in many other states contracts are settled
at the district or county level.
"When the entire teaching force ... goes out on strike and they're united," Ramming said, "people
take notice."
In the past, teachers strikes have tended to come in waves, said Georgetown University history
professor Joseph McCartin. After World War II, there were about 60 strikes from 1945 to 1950.
The pattern repeated in the 1970s, when teachers hurt by inflation were motivated by the civil
rights and feminist movements to take action, he said.
"Success of teachers in one location tends to encourage teachers in other locations," McCartin
said.
In Kentucky, where Republican lawmakers have proposed cuts to retirement benefits, hundreds
of public school teachers packed a legislative hearing Wednesday, chanting "Vote them out!"
after a committee advanced the bill to the Senate floor.
Brent McKim, president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association, said he hopes their efforts
will stop the bill. Asked about a strike, McKim said: "Anything is possible."
Teachers at 28 schools in Kentucky were planning to gather outside of their buildings Thursday
and walk in together.
Jersey City teachers, whose contract has expired, are still at the bargaining table but have
approved striking if necessary, said Education Association President Ron Greco.
"I think it's certainly helping our cause," he said of the West Virginia strike.
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Teacher unions see momentum build with West Virginia strike
Pittsburgh teachers reached a tentative agreement while West Virginia teachers were out on
strike. Although the timing — after 19 months of negotiations — was coincidental, union
President Nina Esposito-Visgitis praised the West Virginia teachers for getting people to pay
attention to how teachers are compensated.
"Public education has to be a No. 1 issue on everybody's mind," said Esposito-Visgitis, whose
members will vote on the agreement by March 19, "whether you have kids in the school right now
or not."
Contributing to this report were: Associated Press writer John Raby and videographer Robert
Ray in Charleston, West Virginia; Associated Press writer Adam Beam in Frankfort, Kentucky,
and Associated Press Writer Bruce Schreiner in Versailles, Kentucky.
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