Truly breaking news: the AP is reporting that the Wisconsin Assembly has passed a bill that effectively strips workers of their rights to collectively bargain.
The only thing that stands in the way of this travesty becoming law is the Wisconsin 14- the heros of the WI Senate who have removed themselves from the state to protect the bargaining rights of thousands of publicly employed workers.
From the AP:
Democrats and unions see the measure as an attack on workers' rights and an attempt to cripple union support for Democrats. Unions have said they would be willing to accept a provision that would increase workers' contributions to their pensions and health care, provided they could still bargain collectively. But Walker has refused to compromise.
Refused to compromise is an utter understatement of what Walker has done to public workers and the state of Wisconsin. His refusal to compromise shows his commitment not to the people of Wisconsin who elected him, but to the corporate interests who effectively bought him his seat to do their bidding.
If Wisconsin falls to these tactics, we will be fighting this fight in every state where public workers enjoy collective bargaining rights. We will fight to keep those rights, because it is the good and just thing to do in standing by the working families of our nation. We see the signs already in Ohio and Indiana. We hear of more bills being readied in other states- perhaps not designed to outright strip collective bargaining rights, but rather to starve them by defunding the agencies who enforce the contracts bargained by public employee unions. A contract with no teeth is no contract at all.
This is the very soul of the middle class at stake here. I watch WI from afar, and pray that those 14 heros of the WI Senate can prevent this from taking place. That the good people who have protested for eleven days now, in bitter cold, to protect their livelihoods and families continue to have the strength to carry on the fight and force these charlatans of the WI GOP to see what they have wrought. Those who have stripped these workers of their rights have no shame. Tonight, they have chosen who they will serve, and it is not the people of Wisconsin.
UPDATE: Sand Hill Crane has also written on this topic with more local color.
There is also news that the WI Assembly voted to change the rules of the House to prevent the protestors from sleeping at the Capitol, and to end public hearings by 6PM. Seems that the WI GOP doesn't like being kept out past their dinnertime, and the certainly don't want to deal with actual members of the public who they are in conflict with.
Lawmakers approved a rule change this week that clears the way for Capitol police to close down the statehouse at 6 p.m. on Saturday and end the biggest rally in recent memory. The only question now is whether Gov. Scott Walker will ask the officers to enforce the rule. Cullen Werwie, the governor's spokesman, said Thursday the final decision has not been made.
The statehouse must remain open to the public as long as lawmakers are in session, or when a public hearing is under way. Otherwise it typically closes at 6 p.m. The new rule ends public hearings by 6 p.m. as well. With no public hearing and no session, there is no reason to keep the building open.
The end of the peaceful festivities cannot come soon enough for Republican legislators, who have dealt with noise, crowds and near-constant haranguing. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, even called the situation a "powder keg."
Whhaaaa! Says Fitzgerald, unwilling to take another moment of noise and hassle, choosing instead to ignore the pleas of thousands in favor of more comfort for himself. What a peach.