The Strike Is On
"We’re not going back to work until there’s solid proof that our demands are going to be met," a teacher unionist on strike in West Virginia tells Jacobin.
West Virginia teachers, school service workers, and their supporters rally at the state capitol last month. Rich McGervey / Flickr
Schools are still closed today in West Virginia.
On Tuesday night, Governor Jim Justice and union leaders announced that a deal had been reached and that the strike of over thirty thousand teachers and staff would end on Thursday. But the ranks were defiant, deciding to continue what amounts to an illegal wildcat strike until victory.
To discuss this remarkable turn of events, Jacobin’s Eric Blanc sat down with Jay O’Neal, a middle-school teacher and union activist in Charleston.
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