Those of you in the U.S. have probably already heard about the ongoing battle between Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the teachers union that has been raging for the past three weeks. Things reached a new boiling point yesterday when Gov. Walker and the Republican majority state Senate pushed through a law stripping the union of most bargaining rights using a procedural move. It was thought that they could not call a vote without a quorum. The 14 Democrats have denied a quorum by hiding out in Illinois.. (A bit of comic relief in a grim story). The Republicans found a way to call a vote with no quorum requirement by removing funding language. This took the Dems by surprise. They were given only a few minutes notice, not enough time to get back to the Capitol.
It's been crazy in Mad Town, a flashback to the 60s and early 70s when it was an antiwar hotbed. Madison and Berkeley were probably the most radicalized cities in the country. The Capitol has been surrounded and occupied by teachers and other protesters for the past three weeks. They are surrounding the place again today, although police have been stopping them from entering the building. I have been getting front line reports by a college girlfriend who has lived her whole life in Madison and has been out there most days. Her mom was the first president of the teachers' union and her dad was the first lead counsel, so she comes by her radicalism naturally. She has a 9 year old daughter who she has taken up there many days. This is a better civics lesson than Sofia will learn in school, she says. She is beside herself over what happened yesterday. I said don't give up hope, I suspect the judicial system will intervene. You can't just undo a labor agreement unilaterally.
It is the attempt to remove collective bargaining rights that has inflamed the unions. (Conveniently excluded from the new law are the unions of police, fireworkers, and state troopers -- oddly enough the only ones who support Gov. Walker). They already agreed to a pay cut and an increase in what they pay for benefits. But they would not agree to giving up the right to bargain, i.e. you'll take what we give you. That's where unions came from in the first place.
Gov. Walker and supporters say their hands are tied, we don't have any money. Which is BS -- that's just the pay/benefits side of it, which is not in dispute. He is using this as an opportunity to break the union. Besides, they wouldn't even be in the red this year if they had not passed a $130 million tax cut. Same deal as in DC. In fact they use the same phrase as John Boehner -- "We're broke." Here's a news flash: governments cannot go broke, they just run deficits. Especially when they pass tax giveaways to the wealthy.
This is not just a local issue. Similar bills are already in the works in Indiana, Ohio, and New Jersey, and other states are watching. There aren't many fiscally healthy states at the moment.
Here is today's story --
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/10/wisconsin.budget/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1And an earlier one by Dan Barry, the best working reporter in the country IMO. His beat is human interest, the stories around the margins.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/us/01land.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=dan%20barry%20madison&st=cse
