As Michael Moore pointed out, yesterday marked the 78th anniversary of the start of the New Deal. Republican State Senators in Madison, Wisconsin marked the date by stripping public employees' unions of collective-bargaining rights. The Republicans invented a procedural maneuver to pass the measure without 14 Democratic senators who fled the state in an effort to block it.
Despite their prior insistence that the effort to kill collective-bargaining rights was strictly a budgetary issue necessitated by Wisconsin's fiscal crisis, senators removed all the budget-related items from what was the budget bill. By removing the appropriations items, the Republicans contended that they could get around a requirement that 20 senators be present for a vote. The vote to pass the amended bill was 18-1, with no Democratic senators present. Cries of "Cowards" from the spectators gallery echoed through the chamber as the vote was taken, the Wall Street Journal reports. The new bill, which curtails collective bargaining and also increases health care and pension costs, is expected to pass the State Assembly.
"Enough is enough," said Scott Fitzgerald, the Senate Republicans’ leader in a statement issued after the vote. "The people of Wisconsin elected us to do a job. They elected us to stand up to the broken status quo, stop the constant expansion of government, balance the budget, create jobs and improve the economy. The longer the Democrats keep up this childish stunt, the longer the majority can’t act on our agenda."
Minutes before the vote, the Republican senators called a conference committee meeting to inform leaders in the Senate and Assembly of their surprising intentions. WI Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) bitterly condemned the vote, declaring it "wrong" and a "violation of the open meeting law—not just a rule, it's the law!" The fit hits the shan around the 3:30 mark, when—as a crowd chants "shame!" outside the conference room—Fitzgerald interrupts Barca's speech:
"In 30 minutes, 18 state senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin,” Mark Miller, the leader of the Senate Democrats who fled to Illinois on Feb. 17th, tells the Times. “Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten." After the vote, protesters who had been locked out of the Capitol succeeded in getting a door open and flooded the Rotunda. "If they decide to kill the middle class, it's on them," said Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) last night as he attempted to drive back from Illinois to Madison to get to the Capitol before Republicans passed the measure.
Similar efforts to end collective bargaining rights for public unions are underway in other states, where last night's vote will likely embolden Republicans elsewhere.
