![\"\"](\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/trump-4.jpg\")
<\/a>Senator Charles Trump
(R-Morgan)<\/p><\/div>\n
Last Sunday, by a vote of 17 to 14, the West Virginia Senate passed legislation sponsored by Trump that would declare teacher strikes or work stoppages unlawful and give counties the authority to dock their pay or fire them. The bill would also not allow for extracurricular activities like sporting events to occur on days the teacher strike. The bill also says that \u201cno superintendent may close a school in anticipation of or to facilitate a concerted work stoppage or strike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump said that his bill was a \u201cmere codification\u201d of a 1990 West Virginia Supreme Court decision that declared that there is no right to strike for public employees.<\/p>\n
But Joshua Weishart, a Professor at the West Virginia University College of Law, said that Trump\u2019s bill was more than a \u201cmere codification.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 1990 Supreme Court decision held that there was no right for public employees to strike in West Virginia,\u201d Weishart said. \u201cThe Supreme Court didn\u2019t say, as this bill does, that such strikes are unlawful. It didn\u2019t say, as this bill does, that teachers can be fired or have their pay docked. It didn\u2019t say that superintendents can\u2019t close schools in anticipation of a work stoppage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis bill goes well beyond what the Supreme Court said in 1990,\u201d Weishart said.<\/p>\n
On the floor of the Senate last Sunday, with teachers looking down from the gallery, Trump said that the West Virginia Constitution mandates the legislature to provide a thorough and efficient system of free schools — public education for the children of this state.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I stand here today, I contend that among the largest threats to a thorough and efficient system of public education that we face in West Virginia is the threat that arises from illegal strikes and work stoppages,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThis amendment is designed to stop that unlawful conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senator Mike Romano (D-Harrison) urged a no vote on the bill.<\/p>\n
Romano said that the bill was \u201cretribution\u201d for the teachers going on strike in 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fear of people collectively petitioning their government for what is right,\u201d Romano said. \u201cOur educators would have had a one percent raise two years ago had they not come down here and made their voices heard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we are trying to do is to suppress their Constitutional rights by placing upon them an onerous penalty that will cost them their jobs. And you know what — whether we are in charge or you are in charge, they will take us up on it one day. I want to know what this state will do when 20,000 teachers get fired. I want to know what this body is going to do then. What emergency tactics we will have to take to try and get our children educated? This is stupid. We ought to vote against it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senator Douglas Facemire (D-Braxton) said that West Virginia \u201cwas founded on people getting together when they are mistreated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember the coal strikes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThink back to your grandpas and uncles who went through the labor strikes. If it wasn\u2019t for the guts of them doing that, a 40 hour work week would be something unheard of, health insurance would be something unheard of, workers comp would be something unheard of.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese miners, they didn\u2019t strike because they wanted to. They went on strike because they were being mistreated, taken advantage of, and being killed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we are here today saying our educators, our service personnel, do not have the right to organize.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are on some pretty shaky ground here. It\u2019s mean. It\u2019s mean spirited. At the end of the day, we are penalizing people for trying to make their lives better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The education bill being pushed through the Senate has deepened the split within the West Virginia Republican Party.<\/p>\n
Governor Jim Justice, the girls basketball coach at Greenbrier East High School, expressed opposition to the bill after it passed the Senate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you going to do in the middle of football season if we have a work stoppage and we\u2019re out for 10 days and we can\u2019t practice, and we go back on Thursday?\u201d Justice asked. \u201cAre you going to play on Friday night?\u201d<\/p>\n
Senate Republicans are not happy with the Governor\u2019s opposition to their bill.<\/p>\n
Today, Senator Craig Blair (R-Berkeley) called on Justice to resign.<\/p>\n
\u201cI finally realized he was more concerned about coaching basketball than he is taking care of the state of West Virginia,\u201d Blair said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senator Charles Trump (R-Morgan) shepherded through the Senate last week a bill that would crack down on teacher strikes. Last Sunday, by a vote of 17 to 14, the West Virginia Senate passed legislation sponsored by Trump that would declare … Continue reading