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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Republican senators in Wisconsin Wednesday night maneuvered around Democrats
to pass legislation stripping public employees' unions of collective-
bargaining rights, setting the stage for other states to pursue similar
steps in one of the broadest challenges to organized labor in decades.
A vote on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's "budget-repair" bill had been
stymied since Feb. 17 when 14 Democratic senators left the state, kicking
off a rancorous, three-week political drama. Without the Democrats, the
senate lacked a quorum to vote on certain fiscal items in the bill.
On Wednesday night, Republican senators convened on short notice and removed
appropriations items from the bill to allow a vote on the remaining issues
—including curbs on the collective-bargaining rights of public-employee
unions. The vote to pass the amended bill was 18-1, with no Democratic
senators present.
Opponents of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's budget repair bill
demonstrated outside the senate parlor at the Wisconsin State Capitol
Building as legislators inside voted to move forward on an amended version
of the bill Wednesday.
Republicans said they had waited long enough for Democrats to return to
Madison. Democrats complained that their political rivals had abused their
power. Spectators in the senate gallery screamed, "You are cowards," while
the vote was taken.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said, "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." Gov. Walker
said in a statement that he applauded passage of the bill to "take a step
in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government."
Democratic House Minority Leader Peter Barca called the Republican vote "
outrageous" and a possible violation of Wisconsin's open-meeting law. Mr.
Fitzgerald said the vote was legal.
Senate Democrats were driving back to Wisconsin after the Republican vote
when they thought better of it and decided to remain in exile in Illinois,
said Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach. He said they feared that Republicans
would reassemble the original bill and force a vote on the whole thing. "We
don't trust them at all," Mr. Erpenbach said.
The new bill is scheduled to go Thursday before the Republican-controlled
Assembly, where it's expected to pass. Then it would go to Gov. Walker to be
signed. Mr. Barca, the Democrat, said Democrats would be "working through
the night" to find a way to delay or block final passage.
The bizarre showdown began in February when the governor proposed his "
budget-repair" bill. After the Democratic senators realized they couldn't
stop its passage, they left the state for neighboring Illinois. Wisconsin
law requires that the Senate have a quorum to vote on legislation involving
fiscal matters, such as the budget. By leaving, the 14 Democrats deprived
Republicans of a three-fifths quorum—20 out of 33 senators—needed to vote
on certain fiscal matters. With Democrats in hotels across the border, the
bill sat in limbo.
Tens of thousands of mostly pro-union protesters descended on Madison,
Wisconsin's capital, chanting, banging drums and sleeping in the capital
rotunda. Republican and Democrat senators held sporadic negotiations. On
Sunday, Democrats indicated they might return soon. Talks fell apart as both
sides traded attacks about their willingness to compromise.
On Wednesday, the Senate and Assembly passed a resolution to form a
conference committee, which then met to amend the bill by taking out the
appropriations. The bill that passed would take away the ability of unions
to bargain over pensions and health care, and would limit pay raises to
inflation.
'The whole world is watching!' protesters shouted as they pressed up against
the heavily guarded entrance to the Senate chamber.
The bill seeks to address a projected $3.6 billion shortfall by asking
public employees to pick up more than $300 million in their pension and
health-care costs. The bill requires public-employee union members to
contribute 5.8% of their pay to pensions and to pay 12.6% of health-care
premiums out of their wages, up from 6% on average—changes that union
officials said they would agree to. Two items taken out of the amended bill
involve the sale of power plants and legislative oversight of Medicaid
assistance, which many Republicans and Democrats opposed.
Another fight over public-employee collective-bargaining rights is under way
in Ohio, where Republican Gov. John Kasich supports eliminating most
bargaining rights for the state's 400,000 public workers. A bill that
cleared the Senate is now in the Republican-controlled House and is expected
to be passed after a series of committee hearings that began this week.
In Wisconsin, the Republicans' move is likely to ramp up tensions between
those who are for and against taking collective-bargaining rights from state
employees. A poll this week by Rasmussen Reports found that 57% of people
disapproved of eliminating those rights.
Mary Bell, president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, which
represents 98,000 teachers and support staff in the state, said she asked
teachers to report to work Thursday while unions coordinate their next
actions, but added that Mr. Walker "will not break us."
Already eight Republican and six Democratic senators have been targeted for
recall, with volunteers across the state gathering signatures needed to hold
recall elections.
More U.S. News
Earlier Wednesday, Republicans in Wisconsin's state Senate began fining each
of their absent Democratic colleagues $100 a day, as neither side offered
much hope of resuming talks to resolve the standoff.
Alison Omens, a spokeswoman in Washington for the AFL-CIO, said passage of
the bill would galvanize efforts to defeat "radical overreaches by corporate
-backed politicians."
Matt Seaholm, of Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin, a conservative group
with about 100,000 members in the state, said he thought passing the bill
was necessary to break the stalemate. "I think Gov. Walker is going to come
out of this fight stronger," Mr. Seaholm said. "At the end of the day, he
said he was going to make bold moves to balance the budget. That's what he's
doing."
Write to Doug Belkin at d*********[email protected] and Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj
.com |
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