Badger state bill targets unions

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Thousands of teachers, students and prison guards descended on the Wisconsin Capitol on Wednesday to fight a move to strip government workers of union rights in the first state to grant them more than a half-century ago, but it cleared a major legislative hurdle without the changes they sought.

The Statehouse filled with as many as 10,000 demonstrators who chanted, sang the national anthem and beat drums for hours in demonstrations unlike any seen in Madison in decades. The noise in the rotunda rose to the level of a chain saw, and many Madison teachers joined the protest by calling in sick in such numbers that the district - the state's second-largest - had to cancel classes.

The new Republican governor, Scott Walker, is seeking passage of the nation's most aggressive anti-union proposal, which was moving swiftly through the GOP-led Legislature. The body's budget committee passed the bill on a partisan vote just before midnight, clearing the way for the Senate and Assembly to vote on it starting today.

Several opponents in the crowd broke down into tears just before the committee's approval.

"I'm sad. Scared. Disappointed," Kelly Dzurick, a 31-year-old fifth-grade teacher in Elkhorn, said as she walked out of the rotunda when it was clear the committee would pass the bill. "Nobody's listening to what people say."

Democrats were unable to stop it.

"The story around the world is the rush to democracy," said Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar. "The story in Wisconsin is the end of the democratic process."

If passed by the Legislature, the move would mark a dramatic shift for Wisconsin, which passed a comprehensive collective bargaining law in 1959 and was the birthplace of the national union representing all non-federal public employees.

"It is momentous and I think people around the state are going to welcome it," said Sen. Alberta Darling, co-chair of the budget committee.

As protesters chanted "Recall Walker now!" outside the governor's office, Walker insisted he has the votes to pass the measure, which he says is needed to help balance a projected $3.6 billion budget shortfall and avoid widespread layoffs.

Walker said he appreciated protestors' concerns, but taxpayers "need to be heard as well." He said he would not do anything to "fundamentally undermine the principles" of the bill.

"We're at a point of crisis," the governor said.

In an interview with Milwaukee television station WTMJ, President Barack Obama said he was monitoring the situation in Madison and acknowledged the need for budget cuts. But, he said, pushing public employees away from the bargaining table "seems like more of an assault on unions."

As the bill appeared ready to advance, tensions rose in the Capitol. Police roamed the halls, restricted access to some rooms and stood watch outside the governor's office. The crowd swelled early in the evening as the budget committee prepared to start taking votes, with boos and screams filling the rotunda as Republican supporters of the bills talked.

Republican-backed changes made to the bill would extend a grievance procedure to public workers who don't have one and require more oversight and put a deadline on changes Walker's administration can make to the Medicaid program and the sale of public power plants.

In addition to eliminating collective bargaining rights, the legislation also would make public workers pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care coverage - increases Walker calls "modest" compared with those in the private sector.

More than 13,000 protesters gathered at the Capitol on Tuesday for a 17-hour public hearing on the measure. Thousands more came Wednesday.

The protests have been larger and more sustained than any in Madison in decades. Beyond the Statehouse, more than 40 percent of the 2,600 union-covered teachers and school staff in Madison called in sick.