Wisconsin Assembly Passes Bill Limiting Collective Bargaining
The Wisconsin Assembly has passed the controversial bill diminishing collective bargaining privileges of state employees who are union members. The Wisconsin Assembly passing the bill does not mean it's now law, as the Assembly is the lower house of the state legislature of Wisconsin. The bill still has a significant hurdle before Gov. Walker can sign it. It must also pass the Wisconsin U.S. Senate, which is missing half its members and cannot vote on anything.
Not enough members of the Wisconsin State U.S. Senate means the bill cannot pass
Collective bargaining rights will be taken from the state unionized workers with the Wisconsin Assembly SB11 bill that has approved. There isn't enough Wisconsin U.S. Senate present to vote on the bill though. MSNBC reports that this will mean the bill can be stuck not going anywhere. You will find only 19 Senate members present to vote on the bill right now. To be able to vote, there has to be 20 Senate there at the very least. The Wisconsin Senate is missing 14 Democrats who have decided to flee the capital in protest of the bill. Until the Senators come back, there can’t be voting on any other legislation.
Assembly Democrats cry foul
The bill had a dishonest way of passing. This is what the Wisconsin Democrats are mad about. Democrats filibustered the bill while attempting to add amendments to the bill to stall it. After 60 hours of this, Wisconsin Assembly Republicans coated to kill the debate and had a quick roll call vote take place. The bill passed 51 to 17 before some Democrats knew what was transpiring, and 28 failed to vote in time, according to Bloomberg. Attempts to reach out to the absent U.S. Senate Democrats by sending Wisconsin state troopers to their homes have been for naught, as they remain in exile in Urbana, Ill. for the moment.
No cooperation from the governor
Gov. Scott Walker, recently the subject of a prank call in which he made controversial statements to a man he thought was campaign donor Koch, has declined to work with unions at all in resolving the Wisconsin state spending budget woes. The bill mandates union staff absorb more costs for their pension and health care plans, which unions have agreed to. However, the affected unions have maintained they have to retain collective bargaining privileges, which Walker refuses to compromise on. There are a couple of specific unions that can keep collective bargaining privileges. This includes unions for firefighters and police in Wisconsin.
Articles cited
MSNBC
msnbc.msn.com/id/41774667/ns/politics-more_politics
Bloomberg
bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-25/wisconsin-assembly-passes-bill-curbing-unions-collective-bargaining-power.html
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