CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Teacher and service worker union leaders have scheduled a 7 p.m.* news conference to announce whether a statewide strike should continue.
Union leaders were conferring with their members this afternoon to decide on a course forward after a stunning reversal in the Legislature on the controversial education reform bill. The unions scored a major victory earlier Tuesday when the House of Delegates killed SB 451 that the unions opposed.
The bill collapsed in the House under presser from teachers and school service personnel, who refused to work Tuesday and instead staged a walkout, closing schools in all 55 counties. Hundreds of strikers protested inside the Capitol, further weakening the resolve of some House Republicans. The House voted 53-45 to postpone consideration of the bill indefinitely, essentially killing it.
Education union leaders celebrated after the vote, but wanted to confer with their members before announcing whether the job action would continue.
“This is an historic day in West Virginia,” said West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee. “However, we are member driven and we will listen to our members and our members will tell us what action we take from here.”
The failure of the bill, which included pay raises and millions of additional dollars for public education, but also provisions for seven charter schools and limited education savings accounts, represents the second major victory for the unions in as many years.
Last year, a nine-day strike forced Gov. Jim Justice and the Republican-controlled legislature to approve a five percent pay raise and to commit to a long-term fix for PEIA.
This year, Senate Republican leaders pushed through a sweeping bill that originally included provisions that infuriated the unions, such as a measure requiring union members to agree every year to have their dues deducted from the paychecks.
The unions viewed the bill as retaliation by Senate President Mitch Carmichael, who has been at odds with the union leaders. The House passed a version more palatable to the unions, but when the Senate Monday tried to push through a version with more charter schools and ESAs, the unions called a strike that brought the teachers back to Charleston.
“It’s very clear today that the House heard our voice,” said AFT-WV President Fred Albert, “And they took our voice, the voice of West Virginians, over the voice of outsiders who came here and tried to ram education savings accounts and charter schools and all of the things that we did not want down our throat.”
It’s unclear what’s ahead now for the parts of the education bill, including the pay raise, which the unions pushed to have taken up separately.
“There are some good things in the bill that we would like considered in other bills,” Albert said.
Union leaders could not hide their glee that they were able to kill a Republican bill even though Republicans hold a 59-41 advantage in the House.
“You witnessed an historic occasion,” said West Virginia School Service Personnel Association Executive Director Joe White. “You witnessed a majority of the House of Delegates refuse to be sold out to out-of-state interests.”
That’s a reference to groups from outside West Virginia who lobbied the legislature for charter schools and ESAs.
*(The press conference was originally scheduled for 5 p.m, but the moved to 7 p.m.)