CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Dale Lee has won a fifth term as president of the West Virginia Education Association union, defeating a challenger who received attention for his role in the statewide public school worker strike in 2018.
Lee, 62, taught for 22 years in Mercer County before first being elected union president in 2008. The union mostly represents public school workers. Lee said it includes more than 10,000 dues-paying members.
“It obviously feels good that people have the confidence in me and our leadership team to continue with what we’re doing,” Lee told the Charleston Gazette-Mail of his reelection. “We have a tough year ahead of us. A lot of things with this coronavirus, a lot of decisions have to be made.”
His challenger was Jay O’Neal, who has been a teacher at Kanawha County’s Stonewall Jackson Middle School for the past five years, media outlets reported.
O’Neal, 39, founded the “West Virginia Public Employees United” Facebook group, partly to unite workers. It became a tool for workers to push for strikes. He’s also part of the WV United Caucus, which ran a slate of candidates for leadership in the union this year.
All of them lost, including Nicole McCormick, a Mercer County teacher who sought the vice presidency. Wayne Spangler was reelected to that position.
Lee and Spangler won with about 60% of county union delegates’ votes, a WVEA release said. A proposed amendment to the union constitution to set term limits on officers failed, it said.
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