Health care at root of West Virginia teachers strike
For seven straight school days, a teachers strike has gripped every county in West Virginia, with teachers setting up picket lines on public roads and thronging the state Capitol to holler at lawmakers.
And with lawmakers unable to reach a deal on a compensation package Friday, the strike is likely to extend into next week, raising the stakes on all sides to resolve an unpredictable work stoppage that leaves thousands of children at home each day.
“I call it the ‘West Virginia Spring.’ Spring is here in West Virginia,” said Democratic state Sen. John Unger, comparing the protests to the Arab Spring protests of 2011. “This is truly a citizens movement,” he said.
The teachers, as public employees, have no right to strike in West Virginia, according to state Supreme Court precedent, and the state’s attorney general has called the walkouts “unlawful.”
But the educators said they have been driven to the brink by low pay that has left many of them seeking second jobs or other careers, possibly in other states.
The militancy of the rank-and-file has surprised lawmakers and even the teachers union leaders, who earlier this week tried to make a deal to raise pay by 5 percent — only to see teachers reject the deal and vote to continue their walkouts.
At the heart of the matter, teachers say, isn’t their salaries. It’s their soaring healthcare costs.
“We’ve seen (people say) ‘teachers are not happy with the 5 percent increase’ — that’s not it at all,” said Mary Clark, 49, a fifth-grade teacher in Monongalia County. “That’s not what kept us out. It’s the insurance. That’s the big deal.”
In West Virginia, teachers and other state employees receive health-care coverage through the Public Employees Insurance Agency. The state program is funded 80 percent by employers and 20 percent by employees. That means as health-care costs continue to rise significantly, the program’s long-term solvency requires “significant revenue increases in employer and employee premiums” over the next five years, according to an October 2017 financial report prepared for the agency.
But there’s a problem with raising teachers' rates: After teaching for a little more than 10 years, “I’ve not seen (my take-home pay) go up any at all,” not even counting inflation, Clark said.
"We’re looking at some of our premiums potentially doubling next year," said Daniel Summers, 35, a high school business and English teacher in Monongalia County.
Summers normally qualifies for raises of about $600 to $700 a year, he said. But he’s now looking at his insurance increasing by about $300 a month.
“While having a $700 increase sounds lovely, that would only cover about a month and a half of my PEIA insurance, and we’re still talking about wages that I’m bringing in — with student debt, and a master’s degree — below $45,000 year,” Summers said.
Summers has taken a second job as an education coordinator for the county. Including his wife’s wages, the couple qualifies for government assistance programs including the Women, Infants and Children food program.
Having a master’s degree and living in a more-prosperous county mean that “I am one of the absolute lucky ones” compared with other teachers in the state, said Summers, a West Virginia native. But he said the state is offering little incentive to stay and “that scares me, because I love this state, and I want to work in this state.”
Republican Gov. Jim Justice signed an executive order Wednesday establishing a task force to study PEIA’s funding. The state House of Representatives passed the pay-raise bill, but the bill has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.
It’s unclear whether state leaders will try legal action to end the teachers strike, as they did in 1990 when a strike led to a state Supreme Court ruling against the teachers.
Anna Simmons, 26, an elementary school counselor in Monongalia County, said she quit the American Federation of Teachers in disappointment in 2016 because it endorsed Justice for governor. But she said the walkout has inspired her to rejoin the union.
“I’m grateful to be here, to be a part of this. … I truly, wholeheartedly feel that this is hope again for West Virginia,” said Simmons.