Thread: Wis. GOP strips public workers' bargaining rights

By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press Scott Bauer, Associated Press – 10 mins ago
MADISON, Wis. – Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers after discovering a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's so-called "budget repair bill" — a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, which spends no money, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved the bill a short time later.

The lone Democrat present on the conference committee, Rep. Peter Barca, shouted that the surprise meeting was a violation of the state's open meetings law but Republicans voted over his objections. The Senate convened within minutes and passed the measure without discussion or debate.

Before the sudden votes, Democratic Sen. Bob Jauch said if Republicans "chose to ram this bill through in this fashion, it will be to their political peril. They're changing the rules. They will inflame a very frustrated public."

Walker said after the votes that Senate Democrats had plenty of opportunities to come home.

"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 government," the governor said in a statement.

Walker's proposal has touched off a national debate over union rights and prompted tens of thousands of demonstrators to converge on Wisconsin's capital for weeks of protests. Spectators in the gallery Wednesday night screamed "You are cowards" as the Senate voted.

"In 30 minutes, 18 state Senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten," said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller. "Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people. Tomorrow we will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government."

The drama unfolded less than four hours after Walker met with GOP senators in a closed-door meeting. He emerged from the meeting saying senators were "firm" in their support of the bill.

Democrats had been calling all day Wednesday for Walker and Republicans to compromise.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said earlier that Republicans had been discussing concessions Walker's office had offered, including allowing public workers to bargain over their salaries without a wage limit. Several GOP senators facing recall efforts had publicly called for compromise.

Union leaders weren't happy with the concessions, and Democrats had not signed off on them.

While talks had been going on sporadically behind the scenes, Republicans in the Senate also had publicly tried to ratchet the pressure on Democrats to return. They had agreed earlier Wednesday to start fining Democrats $100 for each day legislative session day they miss.

Walker's stalled bill was introduced to help plug a $137 million budget shortfall projected by the end of June. He has said that without the collective bargaining bill, he may have to lay off 1,500 state workers and make other cuts to balance the budget.

On Wednesday, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau offered a way to salvage $165 million in debt by refinancing savings. It had said the bill could pass as late as early April if other accounting moves were done by Walker's administration to extend the debt refinancing deadline by a month.




http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wisconsin_budget_unions

I like yahoo because I get to read comments.

I got a couple screen shots of death threats made against the Gov too. Sad how when Unions lose the first thing they do is resort to violence.

Wisconsin - UNIONS, DEMS LOSE; GOP, TAXPAYERS WIN!!!

Posted by Jared Law
March 9, 2011 at 6:16pm

First of all, so-called 'collective bargaining 'rights' should be called taxpayer extortion privileges. Interesting how the Democrats run away and hide like cowards, and yet the radical left screams at Republicans that they're cowards for daring to side with Taxpayers under intense scrutiny, by using a nifty little parliamentary procedure!

The reprehensible conduct of Democrats and Unions on this issue, not to mention the disgusting trashing of a beautiful Madison, Wisconsin Capitol Building, and let's not even get into the fraud, deception, intimidation, and outright assault by unions and other leftist thugs...

It all makes me think that 2012 will be a very good year for Wisconsin Republicans...that is, if Wisconsin hasn't gone totally to the dark side, and the Tea Party/9.12 Project/GOP can effectively make the 'fleebaggers' pay, politically speaking, for their cowardice, and enough of the general public is educated about how close to the precipice Wisconsin truly is. Tea Partiers/9.12'ers, it's up to you to identify, recruit, educate, and turn out Wisconsin voters like never before in 2012!

Here's the story about Wisconsin Republicans stripping Taxpayer-funded government employees of their taxpayer extortion privileges collective bargaining 'rights,' or an excerpt, anyway (ellipsis indicate removed text) from the hard left-leaning Associated Press:

Wis. GOP Strips Public Workers' Bargaining Rights

By SCOTT BAUER | Mar 9, 7:45 PM EST | Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers after discovering a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's...budget repair bill - a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, which spends no money, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved the bill a short time later.

The lone Democrat present on the conference committee, Rep. Tony Barca, shouted that the surprise meeting was a violation of the state's open meetings law but Republicans voted over his objections. The Senate then convened within minutes and passed it without discussion or debate.

Spectators in the gallery screamed "You are cowards."

Before the sudden votes, Democratic Sens. Bob Jauch said if Republicans "chose to ram this bill through in this fashion, it will be to their political peril. They're changing the rules. They will inflame a very frustrated public."

Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald Statement on Senate Action

Posted: Mar 09, 2011 5:38 PM MST

MADISON, WI (Press Release) … After nearly a month of debate on the budget repair bill, nearly three weeks of childish stunts and delay tactics from the Democrats, the longest public hearing in state history and the longest Assembly debate in state history, the Senate met tonight to pass the non-fiscal items in the Budget Repair Bill. Sen. Fitzgerald released the following statement:

"Before the election, the Democrats promised "adult leadership" in Madison. Then a month and a half into session, the Senate Democrats fled the state instead of doing their job.

"In doing so, they have tarnished the very institution of the Wisconsin state Senate. This is unacceptable.

"This afternoon, following a week and a half of line-by-line negotiation, Sen. Miller sent me a letter that offered three options: 1) keep collective bargaining as is with no changes, 2) take our counter-offer, which would keep collective bargaining as is with no changes, 3) or stop talking altogether.

"With that letter, I realized that we're dealing with someone who is stalling indefinitely, and doesn't have a plan or an intention to return. His idea of compromise is "give me everything I want," and the only negotiating he's doing is through the media.

"Enough is enough." "The people of Wisconsin elected us to do a job. They elected us to stand up to the broken status quo, stop the constant expansion of government, balance the budget, create jobs and improve the economy. The longer the Democrats keep up this childish stunt, the longer the majority can't act on our agenda.

"Tonight, the Senate will be passing the items in the budget repair bill that we can, with the 19 members who actually DO show up and do their jobs. Those items include the long-overdue reform of collective bargaining needed to help local governments absorb these budget cuts, and the 12 percent health care premium and 5 percent pension contribution.

"We have confirmed with the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Reference Bureau that every item in tonight's bill follows the letter of the law.

"The people of Wisconsin elected us to come to Madison and do a job. Just because the Senate Democrats won't do theirs, doesn't mean we won't do ours."

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Right about now, Charlie Sheen SHOULD be exclaiming: BOOM! WINNING!

http://www.the912project.us/forum/topic ... hare_topic