Republicans in the Wisconsin State Senate last night pulled off a dramatic legislative sleight of hand to force through the abolition of collective bargaining rights which has had protesters in the streets of Madison, the state capital, for weeks.
The Senate approved by 18 to one the controversial Bill, which will strip public workers’ unions of nearly all their bargaining power and result in cuts to take-home pay.
Scott Walker, the Republican Governor, has insisted that the measure would make up a $137 million (£84 million) budget shortfall by bringing public sector pensions and health benefits into line with those of workers in the private sector.
The move has prompted massive demonstrations in the state capital by the Bill’s opponents and is being watched closely in several other US states where Republicans are seeking to curtail the rights of unions representing public employees in battles that have turned increasingly bitter.
Within an hour of the news breaking thousands rushed to the Capitol building to protest. Protesters stayed in the Capitol defiantly chanting “Recall” and “Whose house? Our house!”
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The Bill will now go to the State Assembly, which is expected to vote on the measure on Thursday.
Democrats say that Mr Walker is taking advantage of the state’s financial problems to attack organised labour, which has traditionally been a strong supporter of the Democratic Party and a critical player in Democrats’ effort to recover from mid-term election setbacks and keep President Barack Obama in the White House in 2012.
Mr Walker never debated the issue during his two-year campaign. The Bill, which was passed in only 30 minutes, reverses long-standing policy in Wisconsin, which was among the first states to give public employees union rights.
“The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this Bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused,” Mr Walker said in a statement.
In an effort to delay the Bill’s passage, 14 Democratic state senators fled to neighboring Illinois three weeks ago to deny the 19 Republicans in the chamber the quorum they needed to enact the proposal.
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Under State Senate rules, any Bill dealing with budgetary matters requires a quorum of at least 20 senators, so the 19 Republican senators needed at least one Democrat present.
But the Republicans removed the clearly financial clauses from the Bill, and passed the remainer, on the ground that it needed no quorum because it was no longer related to the budget.