Wisconsin's anti-union bill set to pass

A bill to crush Wisconsin’s public-sector workers' unions was set for approval on Thursday. The proposal has led Democratic lawmakers to flee the state, and has sparked mass protests by people who say the fight is not over money but the democratic right to form a union.

Protests in Madison, Wisconsin Reuters/Darren Hauck

Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker has insisted that the bill will help cut the state’s widening budget deficit, since it will eliminate collective bargaining rights so that public workers cannot fight pay and benefit cuts.

Tens of thousands of protesters have descended upon the capitol in Madison since mid-February to protest the bill.

“Their voices cannot drown out the voices of countless taxpayers who want us to balance our budgets and, more importantly, to make government work for each of them,” Walker commented.

The state began sending layoff notices to 1,500 state workers last week. He has also ordered state police to arrest the 14 Democratic senators who fled to Illinois on 17 February to deprive the assembly of the quorum needed to vote on the bill.

Around 22 US states have undermined unions with so-called “right-to-work” legislation, banning contracts which require all employees to join and pay union dues.

Last week, legislators in Ohio stripped public workers of most of their collective bargaining rights, and other Republican-led state legislatures have been considering similar bills.

In a New York Times/CBS News poll released last week, Americans opposed the weakening of public-sector workers' bargaining rights by a margin of 60 per cent to 33 per cent.