The main campaign of the WVEA's strike was to fight for adequate pay, benefits, and funding for public school employees and all public employees in general. Recently, as dicussed in the "Goals" section of this website as well as the "Red-State Revolt" action page which is linked at the bottom of this section, West Virginia teachers went on a 9 day strike, not coming into school at all and forcing many schools to close as they could not adequately staff the schools. The main campaigns teachers undertook included a raise in pay for public school teachers and all state employees, including cafeteria workers, bus drivers, teacher's assistants, government employees, etc. The reasoning behind this was that the health-care benefits West Virginia public employees received, instead of a monetary bonus, were beginning to diminish, with state employees having higher copays and deductibles. As a result many teachers were taking on second jobs to help provide income to their families. Teachers also requested an increase in funding for schools as classrooms were not adequately furnished with materials necessary for a quality education for students. Eventually teachers from all 55 of West Virginia's counties participated in these campaigns and many of these same campaigns were undertaken in Oklahoma, as discussed in the OEA page. https://socialmovements.trinity.duke.edu/actions/red-state-revolts
The WVEA utilizes social media to spread awareness about its campaigns to a broader audience, as well as working face-to-face with members of the West Virginia government to make sure that the two parties are seeing eye-to-eye on operations and funding.
Through the teacher protests in West Virginia described in the Red-State Revolt action page, the public school teachers in West Virginia were able to show that public employees can make a profound impact on a state government's policy and generated spaces for all public employees nationwide to have their voices heard.
