Wisconsin Repeals Public Employee Collective Bargaining Rights

About 50 years  ago then Wisconsin Governor Gaylord Nelson was the first governor to enter into collective bargaining with public employees. Tonight the Wisconsin Senate stripped from the bill passed by the Assembly those provisions which were non-fiscal and dealt only with collective bargaining rights of public employees, Then they passed the bill 18-1. The fleebaggers got wind of this but could not make it back in time. Legal Insurrection is running a live feed.

Reportedly the unions are meeting to consider a general strike.

UPDATE:

The Weekly Standard offers this description of what the Senate voted on:

Update 7:38 p.m.: Wisconsin senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald confirms in a statement that the bill passed includes both the collective bargaining provisions and the requirements for state workers to pay more for their pensions and health insurance premiums:

“Tonight, the Senate will be passing the items in the budget repair bill that we can, with the 19 members who actually DO show up and do their jobs.  Those items include the long-overdue reform of collective bargaining needed to help local governments absorb these budget cuts, and the 12 percent health care premium and 5 percent pension contribution.

Original post here:

According to Wisconsin GOP sources, the state senate is moving towards a vote tonight on the budget repair bill–without senate Democrats present.

The legislation being voted on tonight has few changes from the bill as initially proposed. It would save just $30 million less than the original budget bill by stripping out a refinancing provision. But it would still save the state $300 million over the next two years by requiring state employees to contribute about 5% of income toward their pensions and by requiring state workers to pay for about 12% of their health insurance premiums. It would also save $1.44 billion by requiring public employees in school districts and municipalities to pay 5% of their salaries toward their pensions and by removing collective bargaining for benefits, thus giving school districts and municipalities the option of requiring their employees to pay about 12% for their health insurance premiums.

UPDATE:

From Matt Miller

Thanks to this bill — which doesn’t touch any of the civil service protections afforded public workers, nor any private-sector unions — public sector workers will have a choice over whether to join a union. Thanks to this bill, public workers who elect not to join a union won’t be forced to pay dues anyway. Thanks to this bill, elected officials won’t be negotiating away taxpayer dollars the people who finance their campaigns. So, naturally, the Democrats call it the the undoing of fifty years of “civil rights.”