CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia lawmaker has renewed an attempt to punish teachers for striking in a state where work stoppages have occurred in two of the past three years.
Senate Education Committee chairwoman Patricia Rucker, a Jefferson County Republican, introduced a bill Wednesday on the first day of the regular legislative session that would allow striking teachers to be fired.
Under the bill, county boards of education could instead order the prorated salary or hourly pay of a public employee to be forfeited for each day of their participation in a strike. County superintendents also would be barred from closing schools in anticipation of or to facilitate a strike.
While the bill’s prospects of passing are uncertain, the November election produced a supermajority for Republicans in both chambers of the legislature. Having a two-thirds majority gives the GOP the ability to advance bills without Democratic support.
Rucker’s bill “doesn’t surprise me,” said Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association. “I think they can pass anything they want to pass.”
Similar anti-strike provisions were removed from an education bill that passed the Legislature in 2019.
Several states, including West Virginia, already ban teacher strikes, but that does not keep them from occurring. A 1990 state Supreme Court ruling declared a strike that year illegal.
If the current legislation would allow teachers to be fired, “that would be up to a legal challenge,” Lee said. “We haven’t had the right, so to speak, to strike the last two times we’ve had a work action. Our people understand that.
“If things get bad enough, they’re willing to take the risk.”
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