In March 1990, several thousand public school teachers in the U.S. state of West Virginia went on strike due to disagreements with the state government over pay. The labor dispute, which was the first statewide teachers' strike in West Virginia's history, involved the state affiliates for both the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association and lasted eleven days. It ended with an agreement from state legislators to recommend a special session to discuss education matters. Following this, the state government authorized a $5,000 pay increase, as well as increased funding for employee benefits and the establishment of faculty senates in schools.
In 1990, West Virginia had one of the lowest average salaries for public school teachers of any state in the country. In January of that year, Governor Gaston Caperton proposed a hiring freeze and a delay in the implementation of pay increases. The announcement drew condemnation from the unions and from sympathetic legislators, and following protests at the capitol, negotiations commenced between organized labor representatives and the governor. However, by early March, the negotiations had broken down, prompting a strike to commence on March 7.
The strike occurred on a county-by-county basis, with teachers voting in each area to strike. In total, 47 of the state's 55 counties were affected. Major protesting took place at the capitol, which attracted several thousand teachers. Negotiations occurred between the unions and the governor, but disagreements over the terms of a settlement prevented a deal from being reached. Within several days, the state's attorney general had declared the strike illegal and the supreme court ruled that judges could issue injunctions forcing teachers to return to work. On March 12, teachers voted to return to work. This followed a tentative agreement between union leaders and legislative leaders, who promised to request a special session. This eventually led to pay increases for the teachers, implemented over the next three years. The strike would be the last statewide labor dispute concerning teachers in the state until a 2018 strike.
Background
Teachers' pay in West Virginia
According to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, beginning in 1970, the pay for public school teachers in West Virginia began to significantly decline relative to the pay in other states, and by 1990, the average salary in West Virginia was among the lowest in the United States. At the beginning of the year, teachers were making an average of $21,904 (equivalent to $ in ), which ranked 49th out of the nation's 50 states. By comparison, the national average at the time was over $26,000 ($ in ).
At the time, about 16,000 of the state's 22,000 teachers were represented by the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA), a labor union headed by President Kayetta Meadows. Additionally, 3,000 teachers were represented by the West Virginia Federation of Teachers (WVFT), which was led by Presidents Barbara Christain and Bob Brown. These two unions were state affiliates of national unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), respectively.
Governorship of Gaston Caperton In the 1988 West Virginia gubernatorial election, the WVEA became the first major organization to support the successful campaign of Gaston Caperton, who ran in part on a platform of supporting education. In 1989, Caperton reneged on an election promise to not raise taxes when he announced his support for $200 million ($ million in ) in tax increases that would go towards education, supporting teachers' salaries, health benefits, and retirement. That same year, in response to a drop in student enrollment contributed partially to outmigration from the state, the government of West Virginia offered incentives for teachers to engage in an early retirement plan to decrease the total number of public school teachers in the state. This policy resulted in savings for the state government of about $32 million ($ million in ), which was absorbed into the state's budget. In early 1990, public school teachers in the state received a five percent pay increase, which had been the first pay increase for the teachers in three years.
On January 10, 1990, Governor Caperton announced in a State of the State address that, as a result of "static revenues" and a goal of ensuring a balanced budget, he would be advising the state government to impose a hiring freeze and delay the implementation of pay raises for public school teachers. These proposals were to be part of the 1991 fiscal year. At the time, the state spent roughly 70 percent of its annual budget—which in 1990 totaled to $1.7 billion ($ billion in )—on education, which included both primary school and higher.
The following day, a group of 17 members of the state's House of Delegates and Senate participated in a press conference where they criticized the governor's proposed budget. During the event, Senator Sondra Moore Lucht, the chair of the Senate's Education Committee, said that educators felt "betrayed" by the proposal and highlighted that there had been a decrease of 1,200 public school teachers in the state over the last two years. Speaking later about Governor Caperton, President Christain said that the $32 million in savings that the government had gained from the teacher reduction plan was supposed to have gone towards remaining teachers' salaries, saying, "The governor lost credibility when he took that $32 million and put it somewhere else."
Negotiations between the government and unions On February 15, several thousand members of the state's two teachers' unions staged a demonstration at the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston, West Virginia, with additional demonstrating taking place on March 2 and 3. Additionally, the unions discussed a possible strike action. Following this, Governor Caperton engaged in negotiations with union leaders concerning a labor agreement.
On March 5, the governor and the unions reached a tentative agreement that would have seen the teachers receive a five percent pay increase and a continuance on the government's policy of paying the entire cost for the benefits of their health insurance. This agreement would cost the state government approximately $41.5 million ($ million in )—$35 million ($ million in ) for the pay increase and $6.5 million ($ million in ) for the health insurance benefits—and would be covered through a tax increase in coal production and the closing of a tax loophole that had been designed to attract new businesses to the state. The deal would not conflict with the governor's goal of securing a balanced budget. In exchange, the unions would lobby for the deal in the West Virginia Legislature and would drop their threats of striking.
On the morning of March 6, Governor Caperton announced that the tentative deal had fallen apart, saying that the WVEA had not stopped threating a strike action. In response, the WVEA accused the governor of reneging on the deal, claiming that he did not have enough support in the legislature to pass the legislation needed for the tax increase. Union officials also said that they were concerned about a salary adjustment system that the government would institute and whether it would result in teachers receiving the agreed-upon five percent salary increase. William McGinley, the general counsel for the WVEA, criticized the salary proposal as containing "sketchy figures", further saying, "It was clearly not five percent across the board." President Meadows also said that the union had agreed to end their threats of striking only for the remainder of the legislative session, which had been tentatively scheduled to end on March 10 unless an agreement on the state's budget was not reached by that time. According to Meadows, the decision was due to a situation three years ago where a legislative session ended without a salary increase for teachers despite assurances to the legislators that the union would not strike. According to reporting on the negotiations by Education Week, by March 7, it became evident that the governor would not be proposing the necessary legislation to the legislature.
Course of the strike
Early activities The strike began on March 7. According to union officials, the decision to strike was made by members at the county level, and as a result, some counties began to vote to authorize striking that day. Members of both the WVEA and the WVFT were involved in the strike. On the night of March 7, Governor Caperton addressed a joint session of the legislature about the strike, defending the tentative agreement that he had reached with the unions and saying that he would refuse to negotiate with them further until the strike had ended. On March 8, President Meadows said that she would be willing to meet with the governor, but was not willing to end the strike.
On March 8, Roger W. Tompkins II, the attorney general of West Virginia, declared that the strike action was illegal. At the time, the state's laws did not allow for teachers to engage in collective bargaining, and his office based their official opinion on precedent, the language of the teachers' contracts, and a constitutional right found in the Constitution of West Virginia for students to have a "thorough and efficient education". Per the attorney general's office, striking teachers could face punishments that included a pay forfeiture, suspension, termination, and a prohibition from teaching for a year. Strikers could also face criminal charges of misdemeanors.
Strike spreads
By March 8, teachers in nine counties were on strike, affecting over half of the state's public schools. According to a WVEA spokesperson, teachers in 13 additional counties were expected to join in striking soon. By the following day, teachers in 39 counties were on strike, with about 100,000 pupils—equivalent to about a third of the state's total—being unable to attend classes as a result. Per the WVEA, most of the affected schools had closed, while some continued to operate with reduced staff. Picketing occurred in locations throughout the state, including outside of several schools. In total, several thousand teachers were involved in the strike action, which affected several hundred schools. Within the first few days, seven teachers were arrested in Kanawha County for blocking a school bus. During the strike, numerous instances of protesting took place at the capitol, with about 10,000 people participating. During one such protest, striking teachers gathered inside the building and banged on the doors to the House of Delegates' chambers, chanting, "Let us in".
During the strike, Cabell County was one of the few counties that did not see any strike action and was the only one where teachers voted against it, with roughly 56 percent of the 900 teachers there opting against a work stoppage. As a result, strikers in other counties called it "Scabell County", a reference to "scabs", or strikebreakers. After teachers in neighboring Wayne County voted to strike, some organized picket lines in Cabell County, with about 200 non-striking teachers in the county opting against crossing the picket line.
Further developments On March 9, Governor Caperton spoke of the strike, which he called an illegal act and "an attempt at intimidation" by the unions. However, later that day, he said that teachers who returned to work on Monday (March 12) would not face any punishment for engaging in striking, which could include a forfeiture of pay. At the time, both government and union officials said that they would be willing to resume talks, but could not agree on the terms, with government officials saying that discussions would only recommence after the teachers returned to work. That same day, Keith Burdette, the president of the Senate, spoke to several protestors inside the Senate chambers.