After one-day strike, West Virginia teachers face battle over wages and medical benefits

After a one-day walkout in defiance of the state’s anti-strike laws, West Virginia teachers are still facing a fight against the state legislature’s efforts to maintain their low wages and to impose higher out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Last Friday, 2,000 teachers and state employees demonstrated and carried their signs into the state capitol building in Charleston while state senators unanimously approved a bill that includes a derisory 1 percent annual wage increase for teachers who already rank 48th in the nation in salaries. A similar bill will be voted on by the House of Delegates.

Governor Jim Justice, a Democrat-turned-Republican, and the Republican-controlled state legislature, also want to destroy teacher seniority rights while a bipartisan financial board is sharply increasing the premiums and deductibles paid by teachers and other state workers enrolled in the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA).

The one-day strike forced the closure of schools throughout the southern coal counties of Logan, Mingo and Wyoming. Teachers who are demanding a pay raise of at least 5 percent and no increases in medical costs are taking strike votes in other counties.

Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/02/06/wvts-f06.html