A Battle for Unions Lost in Wisconsin

In recent weeks, Governor Walker of Wisconsin put forth a bill to limit state workers' right to form unions for bargaining. Knowing that the Democrats would lose against the Republicans in the state senate, the democrats moved to undisclosed locations to prevent a quorum. Without the required number of senators, the bill could not be passed, until today. Through certain technicalities and rearrangement of aspects of the bill, the senator requirement was changed.

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 people of Wisconsin and the Democrats who uprooted themselves, feel cheated by this maneuver. Governor Walker feels that this cut is for fiscal reasons and that this will generate new jobs. Democrats however feel the Republicans have a personal vendetta.

  “To pass this the way they did — without 20 senators — is to say that it has no fiscal effect,” said Timothy Cullen, another of the Democratic senators. “It’s admitting that this is simply to destroy public unions.”

Whether Republican or Democrat, the citizens of the US can agree that taking away people's rights is exactly the kind of action that the founding fathers revolted against. Settling a budget over the interests of the people, has a greater cost than Governor Walker cannot yet see.