By RYAN QUINN
Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — In 1990, amid West Virginia’s first widespread teacher strike, the state Attorney General’s Office wrote in an official opinion that teacher strikes and “concerted work stoppages” are illegal, citing prior court rulings, teacher contract language and students’ state constitutional right to a “thorough and efficient education.”
The opinion said teachers could be punished by being denied pay, suspended, fired, barred from teaching in a public school for a year, hit with criminal misdemeanors, or even fined or jailed for refusing to comply with any potential court injunctions forcing them to return to work.
Such actions, if made today, would have to be taken in an election year when many county school board members and all 100 members of the state House of Delegates have their seats up for grabs, and when Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is running for a U.S. Senate seat.
A 1990 state Supreme Court decision didn’t go into possible consequences for teachers. But it upheld a Jefferson County court’s preliminary injunction to end a union’s teacher work stoppage there, saying that “Public employees have no right to strike in the absence of express legislation or, at the very least, appropriate statutory provisions for collective bargaining, mediation, and arbitration.”
The state Board of Education has scheduled an emergency meeting for 9 a.m. today in Room 353 of Building 6 of the Capitol Complex in Charleston. “Announced Statewide Education Employees’ Work Stoppage, Related Legislation, and Potential Legal Implications,” is the only substantive item on the agenda.
Read the entire article: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/education/wv-school-employees-may-face-legal-consequences-for-work-stoppage/article_e7da3f04-ff6e-54a7-9c63-5e7859fbd653.html
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