Wisconsin Senate strips state workers of bargaining rights

By Eric W. Dolan

Bypassing Senate Democrats who fled the state, Republican senators in Wisconsin managed to pass legislation Wednesday to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights.

In mid-February, 14 Democratic state senators left Wisconsin to avoid having to vote on the budget repair bill. There are 19 Republican senators, but the Senate needs a minimum of 20 members to be present to debate and vote on any bills that spend money.

While the 14 Democratic senators remained in Illinois, Republicans split the proposal to limit public employees' collective bargaining rights from the budget repair bill and passed the separate piece of legislation shortly afterward.

"The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused," Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said in a statement. "In order to move the state forward, I applaud the Legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform the government. The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs."

One Republican, Sen. Dale Schultz, voted against the measure.

The new stand-alone bill to curb collective bargaining rights still needs to be passed by the Wisconsin Assembly before it can be signed into law by Gov. Walker.

"I think it's akin to political hara-kiri," Democratic state Sen. Bob Jauch told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "I think it's political suicide."

The Wisconsin Democratic Party has launched a campaign to recall key Republican state senators who have aligned themselves with the governor's budget repair bill.

Under Wisconsin law, any elected official who has served at least one year of their current term can be recalled from office. Eight Republican senators are currently eligible to be recalled. Gov. Walker, who was inaugurated last January, will not be eligible for a recall until 2012.

"This is on the Republicans' heads right now," state Sen. Chris Larson (D) said. "If they decide to kill the middle class, it's on them."

"Everyone who is party to this travesty is writing their political obituary," he added.

Thousands rally in Ohio against ‘union busting’ bill

By Eric W. Dolan

Thousands of demonstrators converged on the state Capitol in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday as the state legislature began hearings on a bill that targets public sector unions.

The Reuters new agency estimated over 8,000 attended the protest and the AFL-CIO claimed a whopping 20,000 people were present.

The bill would strip about 350,000 public employees of most collective bargaining rights. It would also prohibit state and local public employees from striking.

The Senate is expected to vote on the bill this week, possibly as soon as Wednesday.

Republican lawmakers in Ohio said limiting public employees union rights was necessary to help reduce the state's two-year budget deficit of nearly $8 billion.

"We have an $8 billion budget deficit and we have a massive reform plan, that also includes the ability to control our costs as it relates to public employees versus, at times, the taxpayers," Ohio Gov. John Kasich told Fox News' Bill O’Reilly last week. "I also want to give the flexibility to mayors, to school districts, to be able to control their costs, because there is going to be fewer dollars flowing from the state to those folks and those entities."

"This is not about diminishing, or attacking, or being against unions," Kasich said. "The unions are still going to be able to represent the public employees. All we are doing is creating a balance."

Protests that began in Wisconsin three weeks ago have sparked workers' rights rallies across the United States. Millions of Americans were out in the streets this past Saturday, participating in the largest flare-up of labor protests the nation has seen in decades.

Like Wisconsin, Ohio has a recently-elected Republican governor and a Republican-led legislature.

"We know this is not a state-by-state fight," Mikey Sgro, a director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, told NBC4. "This is a national fight and we know if they are not successful in Ohio and in Wisconsin, then it's coming to Pennsylvania [and] New Jersey. So we are here to show support of workers of Ohio."