From the West Virginia Teachers’ Picket Line in Wheeling

(Stephen Caruso/The Guardian)

By: Mike Elk February 22, 2018

Payday Senior Labor Reporter Mike Elk traveled to Wheeling, West Virginia, where he filed a dispatch for the Guardian:

Despite the state enacting anti-union “right-to-work” legislation in 2016, support for the teachers among the public remains strong in the once union stronghold of West Virginia.

On the picket line outside of Bridge Street Elementary, cars drove by honking and yelling in support of the striking teachers.

“Out of the last three hours, we have only gotten one middle finger,” said Bridge Street Elementary teacher Lindsay Armmirante. “The rest has been all honks, thumbs up, fist bumps, smiles, it’s actually been a lot of fun”

Horns blared as Sub Express shop owner Perry Wade stopped his car to get out and thank the teachers. “It’s not much, but it’s more than they are giving you in Charleston,” joked Wade as he hands them cards for free six-inch subs.

To read the full story go to the Guardian.

 

About the Author

Mike Elk
Mike Elk is an Emmy-nominated labor reporter who covered everything from Lula & the Brazilian labor movement to major league baseball. He spent years covering union organizing in the South for The Guardian and was labeled by the New York Times as an "abrasive gadfly" for exposing within the labor movement. Raised in a UE union family in Pittsburgh, Elk was illegally for union organizing at Politico in 2015 and used his NLRB settlement to start the crowd-funded Payday Report. He lives in his hometown of Pittsburgh and is fluent in both Pittsburghese and Portuguese, which he learned when attending journalism school at PUC-Rio de Janerio. Email: [email protected]

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