The best gift of 2018

As 2018 winds to a close, I'm thankful for a lesson it taught me: that unexpected good fortune can come when things seem pretty dark. I'm thinking particularly of the great and victorious WV 2018 Teachers' Strike (technically the teachers' and school support workers' work stoppage, but let's not be  picky).

That historic struggle inspired other successful strikes in several states and gave hope to those who believe in the labor movement and public education. And it just resulted in another victory of sorts, a year of coverage under the Public Employees Insurance Agency without benefit cuts or premium increases. This wasn't a perfect or even a long term solution but it was a clear win.

Charleston Gazette-Mail statehouse reporter Phil Kabler, who has been doing his kind of work for about as long as I've been doing mine, summed it up beautifully:

...What was most remarkable was that this was a grassroots effort. It wasn’t, as critics unsuccessfully tried to portray it, as labor bosses directing their minions. It was teachers fed up with low pay and benefits and a general sense of being unappreciated banding together to let leaders in Charleston know they weren’t going to take it anymore.

Also remarkable was the spirit. Despite the seriousness of the issues at hand, the rallies at the Capitol were joyous affairs, with singing, chanting, dancing, and featuring colorful (and clever) signs. This was a celebration....

Wearing red, teachers in 2018 paid homage to the state’s proud labor heritage, and when the governor and legislative leadership tried to use the strategy of divide and conquer, trying to pit school boards against teachers, then parents against teachers, and then state employees against teachers, the teachers stood united.

Early on, when leadership contended that students would suffer, particularly those needy students who depend on school lunches, teachers and others did the noble thing, rising before dawn each day to pack lunches for their students before heading to Charleston, not only putting their students first, but assuming the moral high ground in the fight.

Most importantly, West Virginia teachers started a movement that spread, so far, to Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kentucky, showing that while organized labor may be a shadow of its former self, the ability of working people to fight for their rights may not be lost.

I can still see plenty of hard fights on the horizon in the coming year--including further assaults on public education in the legislature--but these will take place on a completely different landscape.

So thanks, teachers and school workers, for many things, including reminding me that we live in an open universe in which all kinds of wild and unexpected things can occur, some of which may be better than anyone could have expected.

Unveiling Appalachia: #55strong

When teachers, school support workers and public employees rise in West Virginia, they rip away the veil from West Virginia's open secret, which is hidden in plain sight.

(Geek moment: the word "apocalypse" comes from the Greek meaning to  unveil, uncover or reveal, which is why the last book of the New Testament in English is called Revelations. So we could actually call this an Appalachian apocalypse even if the moon doesn't turn to blood.)

That open secret  WV workers are revealing is that behind the squalor of our public institutions and poverty is the fact that for over 100 years the wealth of our state has been drained away by outside extractive industries which left a lot of wreckage in their way. And it's still happening.

This is an old secret but it's still new. As far back as 1884, the Tax Commission appointed by the WV state legislature warned of the dangers ahead if state leaders didn't act to protect the interests of the people who actually live here.

The Commission argued that economic activity alone was not a measure of prosperity or progress unless the wealth generated remained in the state and benefited its residents. It warned that extractive industries owned by outside interests would, in the end, leave West Virginia “despoiled of her wealth and her resident population poor, helpless, and despondent.”

The report’s conclusion is worth quoting in full:

“The wealth of this State is immense; the development of this wealth will earn vast private fortunes far beyond the dreams even of a modem Croesus; the question is, whether this vast wealth shall belong to persons who live here and who are permanently identified with the future of West Virginia, or whether it shall pass into the hands of persons who do not live here and who care nothing for our State except to pocket the treasures which lie buried in our hills?

If the people of West Virginia can be roused to an appreciation of the situation we ourselves will gather this harvest now ripe on the lands inherited from our ancestors; on the other hand, if the people are not roused to an understanding of the situation in less than ten years this vast wealth will have passed from our present population into the hands of non-residents, and West Virginia will be almost like Ireland and her history will be like that of Poland.”

Alas, this warning went unheeded. But this struggle has once again awakened thousands of West Virginians to the need to ensure that our natural wealth contributes to the lasting well being of all West Virginians.

For starters, this means increasing severance taxes and eventually creating a functioning Future Fund to create a lasting source of wealth. That  could help prop up PEIA and deal with many of our other problems.  That struggle won't be won right away, but at least many more people are aware of what needs to happen.

Speaking of apocalypse, if we actually did that it really would be the end of the world as we know it.

West Virginia's teachable moment

(This alert went out from the Legislative Action Team for Children and Families, which includes over 20 of WV's leading non-profits and organizations working for children and families.)

This is a teachable moment... will we learn the lesson?

In every county across West Virginia our teachers, service personnel, and state employees have put their jobs and bodies on the line in the struggle for decent wages and benefits.

For those of us who want to live in a a state that meets its obligations to its residents with good schools, good infrastructure, public parks, good jobs and excellent quality of life, the struggle of these teachers, service personnel and state workers is OUR struggle. THEIR fight for a better state is OUR fight for a better state.

This is a teachable moment for all of us. Our teachers are teaching all of us a valuable lesson.

For the last 10 years our leaders have chased down the blind alley of tax cuts for corporations, which neither paid for themselves nor created jobs.

For the last 100 years our state has bumped up against the dead-end of an economy where our natural and human wealth has drained away. Our policies have enriched out-of-state corporate CEOs and left us behind. We have failed to keep our promises to our children. We cannot afford another failing grade.

This is a test. One we cannot afford to fail.

This is a teachable moment for all of us, but only if we learn the lesson.

This could be the moment we learn from past mistakes. This could be the moment when we reverse course and invest in our children and our schools, invest in the people who care for our children and families and keep us safe.

In West Virginia, we care about one another. Our values are on display all across the state as our neighbors, families and churches are working together to support children with food and care, standing side by side on picket lines lifting our voices together calling for change, and working to make that change a reality.

What can you do to help during this critical time so we learn the lessons that our brave educators and their allies are teaching us? 


TAKE ACTION! 
JOIN OUR BRAVE TEACHERS, SERVICE PERSONNEL AND PUBLIC WORKERS, SO WE LEARN FROM THIS TEACHABLE MOMENT AND PASS THIS TEST FOR WEST VIRGINIA'S FUTURE. 

Please call the following leaders and urge them to put people first, come to the table, and work for a solution that is fair for WV families, teachers and students.  Please be courteous to the person answering the phone:

Governor Jim Justice, 304-558-2000
Senate President Mitch Carmichael, 304-357-7801
House Speaker Tim Armstead, 304-340-3210

Reach out on Twitter:
@WVGovernor
@SenCarmichaelWV
@ArmsteadWV

Support your local teachers and service personnel by posting on social media, visiting picket lines or honking when you drive by, send messages of support to local school boards.
Continue to stand together #55Strong #55United.

Share this Action Alert with your friends and networks.

Talking points for WV teachers and public employees

When it comes to a decent income and benefits, you may hear a lot of “We can’t afford it.” The question is “We who?” Here are some talking points:

1. Since 2007, WV has cut state taxes by over $400 million per year. “We” could have done any number of things with that, including treating working people right;

2. Over $200 million of those cuts went to business through eliminating the business franchise tax and reducing the corporate net income tax. That was more than enough to pay for debt free two and four-year college for every student at state institutions.

3. Those business tax cuts were supposed to create jobs. They didn’t. We have fewer private sector jobs in WV now than we did 10 years ago.

4. Those business tax cuts were supposed to “pay for themselves.” They didn’t. They never have.
5. What works, on the other hand, is having an educated workforce and a decent quality of life to attract and keep people here.

6. You may hear that “We have to live within our means.” Here’s the deal: our “means” aren’t caused by fate. Unlike a teacher or public employee, the state legislature decides how much income it gets.

7. State legislators get to decide to reduce income (tax cuts) or increase income (things like increasing the severance tax, rolling back some unproductive corporate tax cuts, a modest sales tax on sugary drinks, etc. West Virginia could be a failed state or one that invests in its people.

8. Incredibly, the legislature is pondering yet more unproductive tax cuts, including the business machinery tax on certain industries (mostly based out of state) and massive giveaways to the gas industry.

9. The legislature is even moving to cut SNAP food assistance for low income people, which includes many public employees. Even worse things are rolling down from the federal level.

10. Teachers and public employees in recent weeks have made a lot of progress in pressuring politicians to do the right thing and in gaining public support. This is no time to slow down or stop. It’s pretty much now or never.

Last word goes to escaped slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass: “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.”

When it rains

I try not to be Debbie Downer here, but lately that's a bit of a challenge. Here are more items from the local news:

*WV's state budget woes increase. That would be fixable given the political will but probably not given the composition and disposition of the state legislature. State officials have said they've cut about as much as they can.

*On a similar note, it looks like public employees and retirees are in for more brutal cuts in health benefits for the next several years.

*The likelihood of a convention to muck up the constitution is increasing. What could possibly go wrong with that?

*Then there's this: our elderly population ranks 50th in terms of well-being. No wonder.

Other than that, things are just peachy here.

(I'll try to be cheerier next time.)

Cuts and more cuts

If you're a public employee in WV and you feel something on your back, it could be a target. PEIA, aka the Public Employee's Insurance Agency, is gearing up to make millions of dollars in benefit cuts. This could be the next major health care fight here. Or one of them anyway.

On top of that, food assistance in the form of SNAP benefits is declining around the nation as many states impose time limits and difficult to comply with work requirements. WV did that in nine pilot counties. Meanwhile, right wing groups (whose staff seems to be pretty well fed) are pushing for further food cuts in WV. I guess that'll be another fight.

Bone deep

West Virginia's working people have definitely been in the cross-hairs of our Republican legislature.

First was passage of the union busting right to work for less law, which mostly effects workers in industry settings.

Then there was repeal of prevailing wage, which slammed workers on public construction projects.

In the spirit of inclusiveness, the failure of the legislature to arrive at a budget and come up with needed revenue makes it look like public employees are next.

The PEIA (Public Employees Insurance Agency) board didn't have much choice but to reinstate $120 million in benefit cuts that had been proposed before the legislative session.

It makes me wonder how all this will play out.

Meanwhile, could the war on workers have anything to do with this?

This could get interesting in all kinds of ways

The WV legislature spent a lot of time this session on...stuff. Some things it didn't get around to were minor items the state budget and the looming funding crisis of the Public Employees Health Insurance Agency, which provides health care to over 230,000 West Virginians.

Prior to the session, "draconian" cuts were planned, although it was hoped that some kind of fix would be worked out in the session. However, other urgent priorities, such as mucking with the constitution, making it easier for angry white men to carry concealed weapons, and the terrors of gayness took precedence.

Now, the cuts are back on the agenda. This is a loaded political issue that could echo through November if it doesn't get fixed.

On a more positive note, the Our Children Our Future campaign is urging political candidates to make kids' well-being a top priority.