There are many lessons to be learned from the 2018 rounds of strikes, and one, apparently, is that when you’re negotiating with a legislature, you can never be sure that negotiations are really over.
This photo is not even a year old yet. © 2018 Bloomberg Finance LP
If there’s one thing we know about a teacher strike, it’s that once the sturm and drang end, we can look forward to a few years of peace and quiet. So why did West Virginia teachers just walk off the job again, a year after their last state-wide strike?
These statewide strikes (see also Oklahoma, Arizona, et. al.) have been different than a « typical » teacher strike because they have been about more than just the size of a teacher paycheck. But they have also been different because instead of trying to get a local school board to the bargaining table, teachers have been striking against state legislatures.
When teachers strike against a local school district, the strike ends when both sides sit down, agree on a new contract, put it all in writing, and sign it. When teachers strike against a state legislature, the strike ends when politicians make some promises, and some politicians’ promises are just as reliable as a tired donkey in Manhattan traffic.
So as the dust has settled from last year’s wave of #Red4Ed teacher walkouts, a pattern has emerged.
In Oklahoma, teachers achieved some of their goals and emerged from their walkout in April feeling that they had sent a message to the legislature. But one of the first bills proposed in the opening 2019 session was HB 2214, which proposed to close a loophole in Oklahoma law. In Oklahoma, it has been illegal for teachers to strike–but it’s only a « strike » if teachers walk out against their local district.
