Wisconsin Republicans Pass Collective Bargaining Bill Without Democrats
At Weekly Standard, "Breaking: Without Democrats Present, Wisconsin Senate Voting on Largely-Intact Budget Repair Bill," and New York Times, "Wisconsin Senate Limits Bargaining by Public Workers" (via Memeorandum):
CHICAGO — The bitter political standoff in Wisconsin over Gov. Scott Walker’s bid to sharply curtail collective bargaining for public-sector workers ended abruptly Wednesday night as Republican colleagues in the State Senate successfully maneuvered to adopt a bill doing just that.
After a three-week stalemate, Republican senators pushed the measure through in less than half an hour even as the Senate’s Democrats remained many miles away, trying to block the vote. Democrats in the State Assembly complained bitterly, and protesters, who had spent many days at the Capitol, continued their chants and jeers.
The Republicans control the Senate but had been blocked from voting on the issue after Senate Democrats left the state last month to prevent a quorum. But the Republicans used a procedural maneuver Wednesday to force the collective bargaining measure through: they removed elements of Governor Walker’s bill that were technically related to appropriating funds, thus lifting a requirement that 20 senators be present for a vote. In the end, the Senate’s 19 Republicans approved the measure, 18 to 1, without any debate on the floor or a single Democrat in the room.
The remaining bill, which increases health care and pension costs and cuts collective bargaining rights for public workers in the state, still needs approval from the State Assembly on Thursday morning, but that chamber approved the measure once before, and many in Wisconsin’s Capitol now consider approval a foregone conclusion.
More at Althouse, "Chaos at the Wisconsin Capitol tonight."
I would be going after the Wisconsin State Police for dereliction of duty and allowing the creation of hazardous conditions. When you allow doors to be blocked with hand cuffs you are setting up the chance that many people could die in a fire. Were there a means to quickly cut these restraints in the panic that a fire would create? How do these people, even the protesters, get out if the means to exit are allowed to be blocked in this manner?
ReplyDeleteThis is an example of the lack of caring for other peoples safety and the "GREED" exhibited by the unions.
If the police in any state can so flippantly ignore their responsibilities then we need more laws that ensure every one can carry a gun. What other laws will the police because they are union members not enforce? How can anyone trust a police force anywhere to "Protect and Serve" those who pay their salaries?
This is an example of why government unions are an anathema to good governance and the freedom of the citizens who reside in states where these unions have a role.
One wonders whether unionized fire fighters would show up to put out the fire? Just maybe that idiot from Massachusetts can get that "Blood" he seems so interested in getting.