If you’re talking about worker power this week, you’re talking about the West Virginia teachers strike. But you might not just be talking about West Virginia. Because Oklahoma teachers are talking seriously about a strike after their state legislature voted down a measure to raise their pay, which is currently ranked 49th in the country. And Arizona teachers wore red to work on Wednesday “in protest of what many described as the state's lethargic response to a teacher crisis that's driven thousands of qualified educators out of the classroom.”
Here’s more on this important moment:
Sarah Jaffe on the “Newsies rule” and the rising ghosts of labor in the West Virginia teacher strike.
Erik Loomis on West Virginia teachers, Trump voters, and worker struggles for power.
The West Virginia strike points a path forward for the labor movement, writes Jane McAlevey.
"A living history lesson”: Teachers reflect on the massive West Virginia strike, brought to us by Yawana Wolfe.
Kim Swindell, a teacher at Poca Middle School in Putnam County said: “We’ve been here for nine days but long before that it started to kind of rumble. We are very hopeful and I think that we made our voices heard and the legislators and the senators heard what we have to say. I don’t think they took us very seriously in the beginning, but we’ve literally been going to their offices three to four times in a week’s time to tell them how we feel. I think they finally realized that we truly are not backing down.”
Solidarity is the way to win worker power.
And now, for some non-West Virginia news:
● Illinois grad students are on strike to make the university accessible for the working class.
● Right-to-work laws have devastated unions—and Democrats.
● Teaching class solidarity:
Nearby, a cluster of people were engaged in a fierce debate on the fairness of random drug tests for employees. Over in a far corner, a third group traded opinions on whether to accept management’s proposal to offer new hires 401(k)s instead of pensions. “It’s just for new employees,” said a guy in a purple T-shirt. “But we have to think about solidarity,” replied a young woman in clear-framed glasses.
The speakers weren’t impassioned union representatives or managers concerned with the bottom line. They were juniors at Niles West High, an economically diverse school in the Chicago suburbs serving approximately 2,500 students. The collective-bargaining simulation was organized by the DePaul University Labor Education Center, which runs the exercise in 10 high schools to introduce students to economic justice and the negotiating power of unions. For most of the teenagers, it was the first time they were exposed to what unions do—not to mention their first encounter with terms like “HR,” “401(k),” and “union security.”
● As one strike ends, another begins … in West Virginia, no less.
● It's time to separate fact from fiction when it comes to how junior hockey players are treated.
● Big media Erik Loomis and Shaun Richman: Trump is all bluster on trade, but Democrats haven't shown voters they can do better.