Strike

On March 6, 2018, school teachers in West Virginia finally ended a strike that had kept them out of the classroom for several days. The final agreement included a 5% pay raise and a cap on health care premiums. (The strike lasted a couple of extra days because the State legislators initially refused to agree to the 5% pay raise that the governor had promised.)

Much less covered in the US media, though certainly known to those striking in West Virginia and vice versa, is the (as of March 9, ongoing) University and College Union strike in the UK. USU lecturers and university workers are protesting a proposed decrease in pension benefits and a minuscule pay raise for wages that have not keep up with inflation.

Although I am not directly implicated in either of those strikes, I certainly understand the motivation. As I have quipped to friends over the years, "I didn't get into education for the money, but I certainly didn't get into it for the poverty, either."