Wisconsin Assembly passes anti-union bill

MADISON, Wis. — Stoking Republican efforts to check union power across the country, Wisconsin's state Assembly sent Gov. Scott Walker a bill that would limit collective-bargaining rights of government workers.

The vote, during another emotional day at the Capitol, is expected to intensify bitter fights in capitols from Idaho to Indiana, emboldening other budget-cutting Republican governors to press ahead with anti-union legislation.

But it also is likely to galvanize unions and their Democratic allies.

"From a policy perspective, this is terrible," said Mike Tate, leader of the state Democratic Party. "But from a political perspective, he could not have handed us a bigger gift," Tate said of the governor.

In the past 24 hours, Tate added, the state party had received $360,000 in contributions and volunteers have streamed into offices where signatures were being collected for recall bids.

The Assembly vote, planned for 10 a.m., was delayed after law-enforcement closed the Capitol for a time, when protesters filled a section near the Assembly hall and refused to leave. Some demonstrators were carried out.

Some lawmakers were locked out, and police ignored their pleas to let them in so they could vote. They resorted to climbing in through first-floor windows.

Opponents of the bill packed the balconies and began jeering as soon as representatives started voting, making it almost impossible to hear the result. Boos and chants of "Shame!" broke out as the bill passed, 53-42 with one abstention (four Republicans voted no), culminating weeks of heated debate that has brought tens of thousands of protesters to the Capitol and sent Democratic lawmakers fleeing the state to try to prevent the bill's passage.

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said the governor would sign the bill "as soon as possible" but not Thursday.

Protester Thomas Bird, a University of Wisconsin graduate student, predicted Republicans would pay a price for their actions. "The next time they face election, they are done!" he yelled after the vote.

"This was our only option to move forward and avoid layoffs," Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder said. "While some don't like the outcome and are going to continue to protest, this is the right thing to do to make sure that Wisconsin's fiscal house is in order."

As the bill advanced in Wisconsin, a crowd of more than 7,000 gathered outside the statehouse in Indiana to protest anti-union legislation there. Union-opposed bills have advanced in Ohio and Idaho and are under consideration in Kansas, Tennessee and other states, although national polls show a solid majority of Americans oppose efforts to limit bargaining rights.

"We're now up to 22 states," said Robert Bruno, professor of labor and employment relations at University of Illinois. "It's almost an epidemic."

Legislation introduced in Texas this week takes aim at a tactic used by Indiana and Wisconsin Democrats to stall anti-union legislation: The lawmakers fled to Illinois to deny Republicans a quorum. The Texas proposal would keep lawmakers who flee the state from being counted toward a quorum.

Opponents of the Wisconsin legislation are taking their fight to the courts, contending Republicans violated the state's open-meetings law in the vote, a charge that the Republicans dispute. Opponents also have launched recall campaigns against the bill's supporters.

Richard Hurd, a Cornell University professor of labor and industrial relations, said Republicans in other states contemplating similar measures likely will watch the recall campaigns closely.

"It may energize the right, and it may give them the confidence to be more aggressive, but those in the Republican Party who are a little more cautious may want to wait and see how it plays out," Hurd said.

In the Wisconsin battle, both parties resorted to legislative maneuvers to get under each other's skin. Republicans passed rules that would take away parking spots from missing senators and restrict access to copy machines by their staff. Assembly Democrats held 130 hours of round-the-clock "listening sessions" to keep the Capitol open to protesters.

In Washington, D.C., AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the Wisconsin legislation was mobilizing public- and private-sector unions.

"Thank you, Scott Walker," Trumka said at the National Press Club. "We should have invited him here today to receive the Mobilizer of the Year award!"

Others predicted the opposite effect. Chris Edwards, an economist at the libertarian Cato Institute, predicted Wisconsin will "kick start a movement toward public-sector-union reform."

The Wisconsin measure had been stalled since Feb. 17, when all 14 Democrat senators fled the state. But Republicans on Wednesday removed financial provisions from the bill, which meant it did not require as many senators present for a vote.

The bill that would eliminate most collective-bargaining rights for public unions does not apply to police and firefighter unions.

Kyle Demler, a firefighter and union member, said he believes the exemption is meant to divide Wisconsin's fire and police unions from other public unions.

Demler, 28, also said he was upset by how the bill advanced through the Senate.

"What they did last night, it looks bad for the state of Wisconsin," he said, wearing a union jacket and his firefighting helmet. "Walker's turned this into a national debate more than a state debate, and he's listening to other governors more than he's listening to people in the state."

Peter Eykholt, 13, an eighth-grader, left school and went to the Capitol to support his mother, a school counselor and union member. "I'll probably get marked absent from school for this," he said. Other students said their parents gave them permission to leave school early to join the protests.

"I'm learning so much about the government that I never knew," said Chelsea Clark Edmiston, 14.

Information from the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and The Associated Press is included in this report.