Schools across West Virginia closed for sixth day

And the deal put forward by millionaire West Virginia governor Jim Justice was not fully guaranteed and included few concessions over the key issue of workers’ healthcare plans.

Senate leaders say if there is extra money, it should go to fund PEIA, not more teacher raises.

Wednesday some school employees returned to the state capitol saying they are not happy with the deal, saying they have not heard of a fix for PEIA. State troopers would also get that amount, and other state employees three percent. Justice proposed funding the raises by increasing tax revenue forecasts for next year. “Remember previous year? It was budget, budget, budget”.

The bill is contingent on the City of Williamsburg doing away with ordinances that raise the local transient occupancy, plus food and beverage cost and admission rates to events and attractions. Unlike in most other states, unions do not negotiate contracts for their members spelling out pay and benefits, then have members vote on them; instead, the unions must pressure the state legislature to pass bills. Other pay increases built in to the existing pay schedule still apply, as mentioned in the first paragraph.

In case that the piece of legislation gets the House of Delegates’ approval, sports betting would be made legal at the four racetracks of West Virginia and the state Governor-owned Greenbrier resort.

However, many who have walked off the job in recent days say a permanent fix to health care for public employees remains the biggest priority. But many striking employees apparently don’t trust the issue will be resolved, and fear increased health costs could wipe away their raises.

“I wasn’t going to have enough employees”, Upshur County superintendent Roy Wager said Thursday morning.

He suggests several possibilities be looked at as possible revenue sources for PEIA. The Senate’s Republicans did that, carrying the 20-13 vote. It applies only to co- owners, and does not allow anyone else to dictate development like in past legislation. “It wasn’t enough. It was just to pacify us to get us back to work and back down”. Justice said he was swayed during questioning at a town hall meeting Monday in Wheeling from Gideon Titus-Glover, a sixth-grade student at Triadelphia Middle School. It is also important to note that the gas belongs to property owners, not necessarily companies, or the state.

The IWW-WV press release continues, “At last count, over 1,000 voters rejected the deal outright, over 400 said the deal was a start, but ultimately rejected it, and only 21 said they accepted the deal as is”. West Virginia workers past and present have offered one hell of a roadmap to navigate such a future. The state fared a little better on the magazine’s Pre-K to 12th-grade ranking, coming in at 41st. And so, there-until some of these bills go through and there’s a task force that actually takes on these huge premium hikes over the long term, you have a lot of confusion. The state union representatives asked them to go back to work.

As Gov. Justice noted at the news conference this week, “We need our kids back in school”.

He added, “Right now we feel if the Senate would come on board with that our employees would be most likely to come back to work”, Price said, adding that it was the sole goal of the superintendents gathering at the Capitol.