Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: Washington Post: Republican Wisconsin senators bypass Democrats in vote on collective bargaining

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Washington Post: Republican Wisconsin senators bypass Democrats in vote on collective bargaining

Republican Wisconsin senators bypass Democrats in vote on collective bargaining By Michael A. Fletcher Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, March 9, 2011

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/09/AR2011030900299.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert

Senate Republicans abruptly passed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's plan to sharply curtail collective-bargaining rights for public employees Wednesday night, using a legislative maneuver to approve the measure without 14 Democratic senators who fled the state in an effort to block it.

After stripping the bill of fiscal measures that require a 20-member quorum for action, the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate passed the collective-bargaining measure. Analysts say the legislation would cripple most of the state's public employee unions.

On Thursday, the slimmed-down bill is expected to go to the GOP-run state Assembly, which has already passed another version of it.

The standoff in Wisconsin has gone on for three weeks, thrusting public employee unions into a deep crisis. States are grappling with record budget deficits, which some governors have tried to close by trimming what they call the generous benefits public employees receive.

The measure to curtail union power has been followed similarly in other states, including Indiana and Ohio…http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/09/AR2011030900299.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert

20110309 WaPo Rep WI sens bypass Dems in vote on collective bargaining

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