CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A statewide teacher strike in West Virginia entered its seventh day on Friday, with teachers defying efforts by the state’s governor and union leaders to end the walkout with a deal to raise pay. Earlier this week, James C. Justice, the governor, announced a plan to raise teachers’ salaries by 5 percent, and state union leaders said teachers would return to work on Thursday. But teachers across the state have refused, saying they will not return until the State Legislature completes the deal, and counties across the state have kept schools closed. Wearing red T-shirts, often emblazoned with the names of their counties, the teachers filled the chambers of the State Senate on Friday morning and filled the hallways and rotunda of the Capitol, chanting, “We’re not leaving.”“At this point everybody’s still prepared to be out for the long haul,” said Julie Alderman, 35, a first-grade teacher in Logan County, in the state’s southern section, who was waiting for a babysitter to arrive so she could head to Charleston, the capital. “We’re starting to kind of say, ‘Wow, this really may last a while.’”Advertisement Continue reading the main storyThe walkout began last Thursday after months of simmering tension over myriad issues, including proposed changes to teachers’ health insurance plans that would have raised monthly premiums for many.

Source: New York Times March 02, 2018 17:19 UTC