Only for those interested in the Wisconsin battle, from the NYT. The two sides
are talking which is a good sign.
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Protesters in Wisconsin Say They Are Staying Put
Andy Manis/Associated Press
Opponents of a plan to cut collective bargaining rights and benefits for state
workers demonstrated in the rotunda of the Capitol in Madison, Wis., on Sunday.
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By MONICA DAVEY
Published: February 20, 2011
MADISON, Wis. — Union leaders urged Wisconsin teachers to return to work at
schools that are open on Monday, but large protests were expected to continue
at the Capitol against a plan to cut collective bargaining rights and benefits
to state workers.
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Multimedia
Protesters Rally Again in Madison
Protesters Rally Again in Madison
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Related
For Wisconsin Governor, Battle Was Long Coming (February 20, 2011)
Dueling Protests in a Capital as Nothing Much Gets Done (February 20, 2011)
Wisconsin Bill in Limbo as G.O.P. Seeks Quorum (February 19, 2011)
Wisconsin Leads Way as Workers Fight State Cuts (February 19, 2011)
Related in Opinion
Paul Krugman: Wisconsin Power Play (Feb. 22, 2011)
“We’ll be here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday — as long as it takes,”
Gary Lonzo, a union organizer and former Wisconsin corrections officer, said
Sunday as he watched protesters banging drums and waving signs here for a sixth
day in a row. “We’re not going anywhere.”
As the protests went on through falling sleet and snow, some lawmakers
suggested that a compromise might yet be possible over the cuts that Gov. Scott
Walker, a Republican, has proposed. A spokesman for Dale Schultz, a moderate
Republican senator, said that Mr. Schultz supported Mr. Walker, particularly in
his assessment that the state budget situation was dire, but that Mr. Schultz
also hoped to work to preserve collective bargaining rights.
Chris Larson, a Senate Democrat, said he, too, sensed some “wavering” among the
Republican coalition that is expected to pass the measure.
Republican leaders dismissed all such talk and said that they intended to pass
the package of cuts to state workers’ health care and pension benefits, and
limits to broad collective bargaining rights. “The caucus is rock solid,” Scott
Fitzgerald, the Senate majority leader, said on Sunday.
Democrats in the State Senate, meanwhile, who are in the minority but are
needed for a quorum, said Sunday that they intended to remain out of state —
and far from the voting chamber — until Republican leaders agree to remove
broad collective bargaining restrictions from the proposal to increase workers’
health care and pension costs.
“This is not a stunt, it’s not a prank,” said Senator Jon Erpenbach, one of the
Democrats who drove away from Madison early Thursday, hours before a planned
vote, and would say only that he was in Chicago. “This is not an option I can
ever see us doing again, but in this case, it’s absolutely the right thing to
do. What they want to do is not the will of the people.”
On Tuesday, the State Assembly, also dominated by Republicans, is expected to
take up the matter. Democrats in that chamber said they planned to introduce a
long list of amendments; some predicted that discussions over the bill would
last for hours, if not days.
Mr. Walker’s plan would require government workers to put 5.8 percent of their
pay into their pensions (most pay less than 1 percent now), and would require
them to pay at least 12.6 percent of health care premiums (most pay about 6
percent now). Union leaders said they would go along with those plans, but they
wanted to remove provisions that would prohibit collective bargaining for
issues beyond wages, limit pay raises to a certain level without special
approval by public referendum and require unions to hold annual votes on
whether they should remain in existence.
“We have been clear — and I will restate this again today — money issues are
off the table,” Mary Bell, the president of the Wisconsin Education Association
Council, said on Sunday. “Public employees have agreed to Governor Walker’s
pension and health care concessions, which he says will solve the budget
challenge.”
As protests continued here, dozens of “solidarity events” in support of
Wisconsin union members were being planned across the country over the next
several days, including rallies on Monday in Las Vegas; Helena, Mont.; Carson
City, Nev.; and Raleigh, N.C.
The marble-filled Capitol here has taken on a new look over so many days of
protests: homemade signs hang in the famous rotunda, as well as on many walls
and windows; protesters have set up a makeshift “information center” in one
hallway, a sleeping area (quiet time begins at 11 most nights) with neatly
folded blankets in another; and clusters of police officers, some from other
parts of Wisconsin, stand watch.
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