The Dominion Post
CHARLESTON — Red-shirted teachers and service workers packed the Capitol’s main floor so tightly Feb. 2 it was hard to squeeze between bodies to walk from the House to the Senate.
The shirts contained various outlines of the state and were printed with phrases such as “Fed Up Friday,” “United” and “I stand with West Virginia Public Employees.”
Conservative estimates put the crowd in the hundreds; it could have easily been more than 1,000.
While some teachers and workers came to the Capitol from schools that closed for weather, others came from schools that closed because the staff chose to come here to rally.
Sarah Duncan, a teacher from Roane County, told The Dominion Post the reason for the rally: “I think that the majority of people here today, including myself, are here to find funding for PEIA. We do not have a dedicated revenue source for PEIA, and so this problem happens every year. But this year it was major: It’s hundreds of dollars of insurance premium raises for a lot of people.”
