The Senate folded:
West Virginia lawmakers said Tuesday morning that a deal has been reached to deliver a 5% pay raise for all state employees, including striking teachers, according to the state committee meeting on the matter.
The deal is intended to end a teachers’ strike that has canceled nine consecutive school days across the state. Teachers’ union representative Christine Campbell told CNN she anticipates school will back in session Wednesday if the bill is passed Tuesday in the House of Delegates and Senate.
At a legislative conference committee meeting Tuesday to resolve the issue, Republican state Sen. Craig Blair said the new deal represents the largest pay raise in state history. There will be no tax increase to offset the raise, and Blair said the government will see a $20 million reduction in spending to come out of cuts to general services and Medicaid.
Not happy with the cuts to medicaid, but there is apparently $58 million in surplus revenue (I don’t honestly understand), so hopefully that will be applied to PEIA once that commission gets going. Who knows. I hope this starts a wave of teacher strikes.
SiubhanDuinne
Yay! I’m glad the teachers held strong and got what they were promised.
Villago Delenda Est
They should tax the living shit out of the salaries of Big Coal executives to ease the Medicaid cuts.
schrodingers_cat
Yay teachers!
efgoldman
Is it too late for the RWNJs to pick up the football?
HinTN
@Villago Delenda Est: This!!!
Also, yay teachers. Congratulations, West BG Virginia.
RSA
Of course. Someone has to feel pain, and the poor and sick are the easiest target.
For what it’s worth, I came across this in the Post the other day, from 2017:
germy
I thought teachers in Oklahoma were planning to strike.
? Martin
The WV surplus reminded me of a tweet from the other day:
More rich people live in CA than any other state. We have more rich people per capita than any other state. Taxing them doesn’t necessarily make them leave. But rich people have kids, and overall participate in society in the same ways as everyone else most of the time and if your legislators think that cutting services to deliver tax cuts is a good idea, take note that Beyonce goes to the same public hospital in LA as everyone else, run by UCLA. When you cut public infrastructure, when you undermine schools, you’re undermining the same systems that the rich use and don’t mind paying taxes for.
WaterGirl
I am not seeing anything about their health insurance coverage Is it fair to assume they got what they wanted there, too? Why is that not being reported?
geg6
I read where Oklahoma teachers are watching this closely and considering doing the same there.
This would be wonderful.
? Martin
@RSA: Some of that difference is due to other failed policies in the US. Lots of regions in CA need to pay teachers substantially more because the cost of housing is completely out of hand. That’s not a problem with education policy but of housing policy that has spilled over which the education sector simply has to contend with.
? Martin
@WaterGirl: Yeah, that’s my question as well. My understanding is that the pay rate wasn’t the driving issue, rather the change in benefits.
low-tech cyclist
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yeppers. Because as Willie Sutton would say, that’s where the money is.
rikyrah
Good for them???
Litlebritdifrnt
When I started working at an attorney’s office in 1996 the receptionist there was a qualified and licensed teacher. Her elder sister was an associate attorney at the firm. I asked her why she was not working as a teacher and she told me that first year teachers in NC earned 14K a year. She couldn’t live on that and pay the state health insurance and retirement premiums as well and be able to live. The deductions for both of those things took her take home pay down to below minimum wage levels.
Victor Matheson
From an economic standpoint, one very important point to note is how the teachers union managed to get raises for all of the other state employees as well. This is clearly a case of free riding as the teachers unions did all of the work and everyone benefits.
Of course the very concept of free riding is likely to be completely dismissed by the Supreme Court, turning the entire country into a right-to-work state.
randy khan
@Villago Delenda Est:
What makes you think that any of those executives actually live in West Virginia? (I don’t know one way or the other personally, but it would seem unlikely.)
WereBear
I am very pleased. Teachers have been kicked around far too long with Republicans leading with their steel toed boots.
Mike J
@Victor Matheson:
The janitors et al who work in the schools were also on strike. They worked just as hard on this as the teachers.
@randy khan:
One of them is governor.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
This is good news. I only wish there were more unions with more people in them. The fading away of unions is one of the worst things to happen to this country in the last 50 years.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
It’s a good question but I wish the two issues wouldn’t be divided out like that. Their health insurance is part of their pay. That’s the pay deal and they include the whole package and consider it all “pay” like any rational people should.
We’ve done this wacky thing in this country where we’re like “plus benefits!” as if those are a freebie that employers generously provide out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s all compensation.
It kills me with public employees. People are like “plus retirement!”. It’s just pay. If you cut their health benefits you cut their pay. “Pension” is just deferred compensation.
We only break this out for middle class people. No one says “the CEO got 11 million dollars PLUS health insurance” or “he got 11 million dollars PLUS retirement”. FOX business will say “auto workers make X but it’s REALLY X+Y because we generously ‘give” them this or that. It’s not a gift. Employers don’t give gifts.
Brachiator
Very cool!
My day started out pretty bad, so it’s nice to see a bit of good news.
@Victor Matheson:
I understand that janitors were also on strike, so this is not a clear case of “free riding.” But it is doubly good to know that other state workers will benefit as well.
low-tech cyclist
@Victor Matheson:
I’m not sure of the point you’re making here. I see it more as building up solidarity. The more widely shared the benefits of a strike are, the more people there will be who will support strikes in the future.
The Supreme Court, if they decide the case as expected, would be saying free riding is an employee right.
Jager
As the father of two teachers, one in California and the other in Oregon, to say I’m pleased is an understatement.
MattF
From what I read, the teachers, the WV Governor, and the WV House were all being simultaneously stabbed in the back by the WV Senate leadership. It’s important to watch now and see if there was a mutual suicide pact or whether someone actually got what they wanted. We shall see.
patroclus
I’m pleased that they got what was negotiated, extended that to all state employees, and increased solidarity amongst the unions, but I wouldn’t necessarily call this a “big win.” The health care needs to be fully funded and taking the funds from medicare and other state services has a “rob Peter to pay Paul” ring about it. Getting rid of the Republicans and changing the politics of the state long-term would be more important, in my view. Even with a 5% raise, they’ll still be poorly paid, in my opinion as well.
Litlebritdifrnt
Totally OT but this got me crying….
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf_Yv_YBtX8/
Michelle is da bomb!
zhena gogolia
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Could we please make Michelle Obama the queen, with unlimited absolutist powers? I’m ready to give up on “democracy.”
TenguPhule
@low-tech cyclist:
Worse. They’ll be pulling a Citizens United and pretending that Free Riding does not exist.
My Union has already battened down the hatches and warned our people what’s coming since 2016.
Gorsch and friends are going to gut worker rights across the board. And remember, this fucking case will be used as springboard precedent under the new “I don’t like this, therefore I do not want to pay for it” fig leaf standard.
This is going to end badly.
WaterGirl
@Kay: I completely agree, Kay. Can you suggest a better way that I could have used to frame the question to acknowledge that?
Not being snarky or snotty, I really believe that language can have a big affect over time. Like right to life and death tax. I hate the Republicans for being so much better at that than we are.
WaterGirl
@Litlebritdifrnt: That link was exactly what I hoped it would be. Go Michelle!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@? Martin: That and someone with a masters could quite easily land a far better job that a 30K a year teaching job in urban California. In the 90s Wilson and the Republicans were going to show the teachers who was boss, screamed about how 30K a year was horribly over paid, froze their wages during the Dotcom boom, so the teachers quit in droves and they ended up paying more like 60K a year to get them back.
NotMax
Does that happen to include salaries of state legislators and the governor?
JPL
@Litlebritdifrnt: So sweet!
NotMax
Ought to be a wake-up call or sorts to those who question the purpose or utility of unions.
But won’t be.
joel hanes
‘A thing is about to happen which has not happened since the Elder Days: the Ents are going to wake up and find that they are strong.’
‘What will they do?’ asked Legolas in astonishment.
‘I do not know,’ said Gandalf.
‘I do not think they know themselves.’
WaterGirl
@NotMax: I’m not sure that’s still true. I think the Parkland kids have shaken up a lot more than the
gun controlmassacre elimination issue.There is talk of a possible state-wide teacher’s strike in the state ranked 49th, and rumblings in Kentucky, as well.
Van Buren
@? Martin: This can’t be right, as I have been told that California has been destroyed by immigrants.
scav
@Litlebritdifrnt: AND a dance party. We definitely need more of these sort of queens.
eta dancing
WaterGirl
@joel hanes: That quote made me smile. It’s apropos, to say the least.
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia:
“Michelle Xi” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue but yes, I’m objective pro more-Michelle generally.
Somewhere within the bowels of the Koch-Republican machine is a discrete group of individuals tasked with strategizing how to destroy a Michelle O. presidential run. I believe there is a zero chance of that happening–she knows the office far to well to want it–but she frightens the holy fvck out of them, which makes me smile.
rikyrah
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Just came to post this.
How fabulous is Forever FLOTUS ???
trollhattan
@Van Buren:
You should see the joint–shambles.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
I don’t know – I only know it when I see it. Like the definition of pornography :)
It leads to these insane debates, where people say “it’s public money” when it’s public employee compensation. When does it turn into their money? Never? The public owns their pay for eternity? You saw it with health care. “We can’t buy birth control because we’re religious”. Well, luckily you’re not buying it – your employees are, with the compensation you traded for their services. I just want some clarity. When does this money actually change hands? We need a bright line. Conservatives have taken this “fungability” argument into ludicrous territory.
One of the arguments in the SCOTUS case is “the public” shouldn’t pay union fees. I’m not paying union fees. I pay teachers and then I assume the money is no longer mine. I don’t retain control over it forever.
RSA
@? Martin:
I had similar thoughts even about WV, I think. Some of the news reports (and posts/comments here) pointed out that WV teachers’ salaries are ranked 48th or 49th among U.S. states. One obvious challenge is that WV per capita income is also ranked 48th or 49th among U.S. states… We (as a country) don’t seem to be very good at handling systematic inequalities, historically.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Never.
Because Republicans believe that your money is always their money. Always.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Technically its more “as a member of a union who has gotten benefits from it for many years, I have decided that I no longer want to pay for it since I am retiring soon and Republicans have offered to support me as I shit the dining table where everyone else was planning to eat after me” kind of deal along with a heaping dose of “the taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for government unions, never mind that government can require people to work and deny them the ability to strike by government fiat. But spending more to privatize government services through contractors makes perfect sense because Free Market, bitches!”
Kelly
Rock solid pensions and health care for all would be a great economic stabilizer. Oregon started offering increased pension benefits as deferred compensation during a recession in the 70’s. It became the standard in subsequent recessions. I think it’s a good thing. It keeps taxes from climbing during downturns and is an obscure way around the part of the 50 little Hoovers problem. Unfunded government pension debt like Social Security and the Post Office Pension funding is a right wing boogeyman to hide their real agenda behind.
Litlebritdifrnt
@rikyrah: I have been wondering if any other FLOTUS would have taken the time and effort to actually do this. I can’t think of one. I repeat myself Michelle is da bomb!
stinger
@Litlebritdifrnt: I believe Rosalyn Carter would.
Litlebritdifrnt
@stinger: I believe you are right. I stand corrected.
Kay
@TenguPhule:
Guffaw. After listening to conservative arguments for FIFTY YEARS I have decided most of them boil down to “I don’t want to PAY for… stuff!”
Me neither! But that’s not an ideology, really.
kindness
Does PEIA cover government employees as well as teachers? That has been my assumption.
catclub
@? Martin:
I believe the first one. I thought Connecticut or MA or Wyoming would win on per capita.
What measure of rich people?
The Lodger
@Litlebritdifrnt: That was just excellent. Nothing like a little Michelle-and-Parker to brighten up my day!
catclub
@Kay: First entry on keynes and conservatism:
ETA: I think either superior or moral can be dropped without loss of generality.
catclub
@kindness: I bet PE stands for Public Employees
Elizabelle
Good for the teachers.
I would like to see a LOT of strikes, and a lot of marches, in the coming months. On numerous issues. It energizes the marchers and their supporters, even if the MSM refuses to cover it (unless Tea Partiers are out there, the little darlings).
Litlebritdifrnt
Dance Party
sorry video is out there but my puter won’t let me C&P it.
catclub
@WaterGirl:
Because then the reporting would have been too informative, discuss actual grievances, when surface reporting (5%? yes or no?) would be much easier.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
It is the ideal of :”I got mine, Fuck You.”
This is who they are Kay, the skin suit is off and the lizards are looking back at us.
Immanentize
@low-tech cyclist: If the Supreme Court decides that non-union members can opt out of “maintenance fees,” then Unions have a bunch of options left. For example, they will probably go to a fee-for services model where they could charge non-union members for things like grievance representation. They could also bargain for some member-only benefits as long as those did not violate EEOC type standards. The NLRA does not require everyone to be in the Union, that is just the most convenient way for businesses to deal with such problems…. In short, this is going to create a HUGE headache for businesses in negotiations, in addition to diminishing Union coffers.
If Steve from Atlanta is here, I would love to hear his take.
Kay
This Oklahoma thing is just wild:
Kay
Okay, so I’m fascinated with “schools, not teachers, going on strike”
So in say, Baltimore, where they didn’t have heat in some schools they could refuse to open until they get heat.
This is a new idea, and it’s out of radically liberal Oklahoma.
Duane
@patroclus: Jackass republicans had to punish other people to suit their spiteful nature. Tell them no deal if it includes cuts that harm the neediest in WV. The teachers have them cornered. Make the depraved, shameless politicians pay till it hurts.
Immanentize
Here is a question on the money is speech and corporations are people question — why are individuals barred from filing Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protections. Corporations get to do so, restructure, etc. Isn’t that an equal protection violation based on your status as, you know, an organic life form?
Yutsano
@Immanentize: That theory could be tested in court, although finding someone who could afford the attorney after the bankruptcy filing would be complex. And it’s all pretty much federal law, which makes it even more pricey.
Shorter me: have fun storming the castle!
Brachiator
@catclub:
I guess that this explains why California must be punished. From a 2014 NBC story:
California was number 1, New York number 2, Texas number 3.
Victor Matheson
@Brachiator: I didn’t know about the janitors. Good for them and thanks for the information. However, employees in all sorts of non-education state agencies apparently got raises thanks to the efforts of educators (including custodians). This shows the positive spillover effects of unions on wage even in non-unionized industries. For all of the non-unionized workers out there who hate the unions, they would do well to remember that this really is a case where the phrase “a rising tide lifts all boats” does actually apply.
James E. Powell
@Immanentize:
It isn’t an equal protection violation, but it is an equal protection question. It would almost certainly be given the rational basis test, which defers judgment to the legislature, and would almost certainly be approved.
Leto
@Kelly: I know this is now a dead thread, but when you mentioned the Post Office it reminded me of the great Charlie Pierce series of articles concerning the Post Office. At the moment I can only find one of the three (I’m at work and limited in my search abilities): The Post Office Is Not an Other. The Post Office Is Us.
Edit: I specifically wanted to highlight this part:
catclub
@Leto: I would have thought that under the walk and chew gum at the same time, principle, the Democrats and Obama could have repealed said law in 2009, but it looks like they did not – nor made a stink about it when the GOP filibustered repeal.
Gelfling 545
@Brachiator: I would assume that “all other state employees” includes more than janitors.
Beezus
Ha. Watch this: Seth takes a closer look at the thousands of teachers on strike in West Virginia and how the constant turmoil in his administration is causing President Trump to lash out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gagc6UL2Q-I