It is exciting watching the teachers in West Virginia assert their worth by demanding a well-deserved pay increase. It seems like their strike will be ultimately successful.
West Virginia teacher on strike for more than a week now
West Virginia Teacher strike, an act that must be replicated throughout the US – https://t.co/01e5gY29M1 pic.twitter.com/FAkx3Obar1
— Egberto Willies, Politics Done Right host
(@EgbertoWillies) March 5, 2018
The West Virginia teachers are employing an excellent tactic that is sure to garner widespread support in that they are showing the humanity that comes with their profession.
CNN.com reported the following.
Charleston, West Virginia (CNN)West Virginia legislators scrambled Monday to see whether there is enough money to meet teacher pay demands and end a strike that has dragged into its eighth day. A legislative conference committee appointed to resolve differences between the state Senate and House is scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. “We recognize the urgency of this situation,” said Delegate Paul Espinosa, chair of the House Education Committee and co-chair of the conference committee on House Bill 4145, the pay raise legislation.
Gov. Jim Justice and the union leaders last week agreed that teachers and service personnel would receive a 5% pay raise. The House approved the proposal, but the Senate passed a 4% raise. Union leaders say the teachers won’t return to work until they get a 5% raise.
The dispute is whether the money is there to pay the teachers. Are you kidding me?
Democrats in the Legislature say new revenue projections show the money is there and that a 5% raise would amount to $13 million more in spending than a 4% bump. “This situation has evolved very quickly in recent days, and we want to make sure committee members have a full array of accurate information available to make a well-informed decision,” Espinosa said.. “To accomplish that, we have instructed our respective Finance Committee staffs to pull data and put together the necessary fiscal information, and have separately reached out to the Governor’s Office staff to ask for more budgetary information from the executive branch.”
Politicians can always find the money to pay for wars and military. Somehow they are consistently unable to fund social programs that do good, that invest in human beings.
This West Virginia strike must be a catalyst of things to come. One should be proud of these teachers throughout every county in the state holding their ground. They are showing that the power is with the organized masses and it is for that reason that the Plutocracy using the tenets of the Powell Manifesto is investing in killing labor unions.
Americans must use the tools that have not yet been taken away by the plutocrats, social media and other online resources to organize. It is true that labor unions make organizing much easier. However, with governments finding ways to coerce labor unions out of existence or into ineffective organizations, decentralized grassroots organizing will make the next best option.
Wealth and production have always been the purview of the masses, not the few. The plutocracy has instituted divide and conquer ideologies that have kept people from getting together to demand the share of the economy that is rightfully theirs. As we neutralize their techniques, we will build more egalitarian structures that ensure we the people really run the country. More importantly, we will ensure business, our economy serves us all and not the other way around.
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