West Virginia has had an interesting political history. 85 years ago, West Virginia was an extremely liberal state, as many residents of the state owed many of their professional, education, and fiscal opportunities to the programs implemented as a result of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. However, West Virginia has since become more and more conservative, especially with the emergence of liberal environmental and trade policies that have weakened the coal and steel industries, which compromise the backbone of the state's economy and provides jobs for a large number of West Virginia citizens. As a result of West Virginia's shift to a more conservative demographic, the West Virginia Education Association has previously struggled to gain a large amount of clout within the state. Labor unions such as the WVEA are generally considered liberal groups, as the funding they request from the state government generally comes from taxpayers. Like in other conservative states, education isn't a priority for many families in West Virginia, as a large amount of people enter the blue-collar work force at a young age and often do not need a college degree of even a high school diploma. As a result, the WVEA's requests are often met with scrutiny from the conservative government and taxpayers. Recently however, conditions for the group have been improving as the advent of technology and mass media have led more West Virginians to see the value of public and higher-level education, and this is reflected in the 5% raise teachers and all public employees received from the recently successful strike that the WVEA helped organize. For more on the political of history, see the article linked below.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/3/17074824/west-virginia-...
As stated above, the WVEA is a state-wide arm of the National Education Association, or the NEA, which was founded in 1867 in Philadelphia. The group was founded by people who believed public school teachers were underrepresented. The union was officially granted a charter by Congress in 1906. The group recently celebrated their 150th anniversary in 2017.
On the whole, the WVEA has no extreme ideological composition, members come from a variety of religious, ethnic, and social backgrounds. However, all members are public school teachers who work together to ensure that West Virginia's state government is treating teachers fairly and providing adequate funding for schools.
The WVEA has a president, vice-president, treasurer, and NEA Director who works directly with the NEA . These executives are primarily responsible for making decisions based on the interest of the group as a whole. Besides the executives, members come from a variety of backgrounds and include teachers, custodians, library specialists, and bus drivers.