Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

In a dramatic, 30-minute legislative procedure that caught their Democratic opponents entirely off-guard, Wisconsin Senate Republicans passed a Bill on Wednesday that pared back the rights of unions to negotiate pay rises to historically low levels and swiftly ended a hard-fought political battle to prevent a the erosion of their collective bargaining power.

While recent weeks had seen Wisconsin Democrats fleeing the State to avoid the necessary quorum for the passage of the bill, Republicans led by Governor Scott Walker got around that manoeuvre by detaching the financial clauses of the Bill, a move that made it possible to pass the Bill without the quorum.

The passage of the so-called Budget Repair Bill, aimed at curbing the State's out-of-control anticipated budget deficit according to Mr. Walker, will now force public sector workers to accept the equivalent of an eight-per-cent pay cut in the form of increased payments to pension and health schemes.

Reacting to the move, leader of the Senate Democrats Mark Miller was quoted as saying: “Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten.”

The Guardian quoted Mr. Miller as saying, “Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people. We will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government.”

Following the proposal to pass it in the Senate, protestors from across the State had taken over the Capitol building in Madison. Democratic leaders then decamped for other States such as Illinois in a bid to stave off the Bill's passage.

This week's developments, however, may seal the fate of public sector workers in other States too, where the trend towards curtailing union rights has been bolstered by growing Tea-Party-based fiscal conservatism and broader rightwing agendas.

From The Hindu

After weeks of large-scale protests against legislative proposals to cut the bargaining power of unions in the state of Wisconsin, talks that sought to find a way out of the impasse appeared to be collapsing early this week.

The proposals, principally driven by Republican Governor Scott Walker, led to a dramatic sequence of events including 14 Democratic Senators fleeing the state on February 17, in a bid to foil the bill’s passage in the state Senate.

Protestors also took over the Capitol building in Madison, the state capital, until last Thursday, when a judge ruled that they could not continue doing so. However the same judge also ruled that the state had violated the public's free speech and assembly rights by restricting access to the building, media reports said.

Mr. Walker’s plans to cut the rights of unions to bargain for pay, health care benefits, working hours and vacations was purportedly based on his intention to trim the state’s out-of-control anticipated budget deficit. According to Mr. Walker, this would amount to $137 million in 2011 and he also expected a $3.6 billion shortfall over the next two years.

Mixed reports

Yet there were mixed reports over the weekend about how close the talks between Republicans and Democrats were to collapse. A report in the Wall Street Journal said that some of the state senate Democrats who fled the state were close to giving up the fight.

In particular, Senator Mark Miller was quoted as saying that he and his fellow Democrats “intend to let the full Senate vote on Governor Scott Walker’s “budget-repair” bill, which includes the proposed limits on public unions’ collective-bargaining rights.”

The WSJ said that Mr. Miller declined to comment on how soon the Democratic senators, now in Illinois, would return yet that Mr. Miller was clear that a Republican resolution passed last week holding Democrats in contempt and ordering police to detain them when they return to Wisconsin, needed to be addressed first.

However, other Senators including Democrat Chris Larson said that the Democrats would only return when the move against collective bargaining was off the table and “That could be soon based on the growing public opposition to the bill and the recall efforts against Republicans.”

His comments on recalls related yet another reaction to the move against unions — as a result of which some Republicans and Democrats have to face the possibility of their term in office being cut short depending on the outcome of efforts to “recall” them based on voter signature petitions.