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Senate Democrats in Wisconsin failed to show up Thursday for a vote on a "union-busting" bill that has prompted police officers to launch a dragnet for the missing lawmakers.

Fourteen Senate Democrats have left the state to prevent the vote, according to AP sources in Wisconsin, attempting to force further negotiation on the bill.  Expected to pass the Republican-controlled Senate, at least one Democratic representative must be present in order to be brought to a vote.

"It's kind of unbelievable that they're elected to do a job and they wouldn't show up to do it," said Republican Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald.

The bill has sparked a storm of protest for three days. Teachers marching at Wisconsin's Capitol Building in Madison shut down schools for a second day Thursday so they could demand collective bargaining rights that they say are essential to keeping kids in school.

isn't opening the schools essential to keeping kids in school?

Wisconsin's measure would end collective bargaining for state, county and local workers, except for police, firefighters and the state patrol. Unions still could represent workers, but could not seek pay increases above those pegged to the Consumer Price Index unless approved by a public referendum. Unions also could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized.

The Democratic Party’s Organizing for America, the leftover campaign apparatus from the Obama campaign, has entered the fray, filling buses and running phone banks for unions in Wisconsin. President Obama offered his opinion, declaring Walker’s measures an “assault on unions” despite admitting he hadn’t looked into the details.

Speaking on Morning Joe Thursday morning, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) compared the current situation in Wisconsin to the recent unrest in Egypt that toppled the 30-year authoritarian rule of Hosni Mubarak, saying it's "like Cairo has moved to Madison these days."

"He is basically saying, state workers, which have extremely generous benefit packages relative to their private sector counterparts, they contribute next to nothing to their pensions, very, very little in their health care packages," Ryan responded "He's asking that they contribute about 12% for their health care premiums, which is about half of the private sector average, and about 5.6% to their pensions. It's not asking a lot, it's still about half of what private sector pensions do and health care packages do."

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:


The bill has sparked a storm of protest for three days. Teachers marching at Wisconsin's Capitol Building in Madison shut down schools for a second day Thursday so they could demand collective bargaining rights that they say are essential to keeping kids in school.

isn't opening the schools essential to keeping kids in school?

And Obama is leading the charge ... his "Organizing for America" is printing the signs, filling up buses, and shipping them over.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/statepage?state=WI#blogTop

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I'd say it's shameful. Like voting on a bill when you don't know what's in it.

Most of our politicians are dickwads. And that's about the nicest thing I can say.

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Originally Posted by Jann Morrison Kostka:

Most of our politicians are dickwads. And that's about the nicest thing I can say.

I've always wished I could be as nice as you.

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This is all about collective bargaining being eliminated.  The unions had already been willing to go along with the actual finances.  The governor and GOP-lead state congress just doesn't want to deal with unions any more so they added these "shut up and take it" measures.  Their Democratic counterparts left because they were not going to allow any talk about the bill either...it was also "just shut up and pass this".  It's more like Cairo than just the demonstrators.

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Originally Posted by Scott Terry:

Originally Posted by Jann Morrison Kostka:

Most of our politicians are dickwads. And that's about the nicest thing I can say.

I've always wished I could be as nice as you.

lol

I am not feeling very nice today.

And to Keith... I was a loyal union member for 30 years. Got screwed by the union- I have no sympathy for them. The age of unions is gone. They had their place once. As far as I'm concerned they bargained themselves out.

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Originally Posted by Keith Larson:
This is all about collective bargaining being eliminated.  The unions had already been willing to go along with the actual finances.  The governor and GOP-lead state congress just doesn't want to deal with unions any more so they added these "shut up and take it" measures.  Their Democratic counterparts left because they were not going to allow any talk about the bill either...it was also "just shut up and pass this".  It's more like Cairo than just the demonstrators.

It's about 40-50 years of crooked politicians (both sides) making promises they knew couldn't be kept and the same amount of time that crooked union bosses were building their own power bases ... were shooting it to the taxpayers causing them to get a shitty deal for their investments.

Until today ...

Now it's about economic survival.

Teachers shouldn't be bitching.  They have jobs.

And they should belly-up to the table just like everybody else.

Or they're going to be out of jobs, too.

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I have never been in a union or care to be.  But I am originally from Wisconsin and know how much many care about their Progressive and union history.  And again, this is not about the money, this is not about this year.  They will 'belly up to the table', they just want a table to be there instead of a here just take this attitude.  

There are also many that question how bad the state's budget is.  Just before this they passed tax cuts for large corporations.  I don't think Walmart is hurting that bad that they need money from a state in in such a terrible condition.

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I might buy that Keith.  If it weren't for the fact that the poor, underpaid teachers in the NEA somehow had $50,000,000 to get Obama elected.

Plus, this nation already is ranked among highest corporate taxes in the world while Obama bitches about jobs moving overseas (and wants to punish them more by taxing them even more).  AND we're also among the highest educational when it comes to educational expenses.

This government's killed businesses.  And the government + teachers unions have made the quality of education tumble.

They're both a bad investment.

It's time to right the ship.  The answer is not more government, more government expenses, and higher taxes.  The answer is "less to all the above".

Business drive the economy and makes it prosper.  The government only mucks it up.

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I wasn't thinking about the national situation, I'd probably give you most of that nationally.  I'm just talking about the state of Wisconsin here.  And by most accounts it will actually have a small surplus this year to show some of the difference. It's not set to remain that way though.

The corporation tax "relief" they gave to major corporations was a result of the Illinois' budget problems.  It was supposed to make the state look a little more favorable than it's neighbor.  The problem was that although overall it's millions of dollars, but no one corporation is getting enough to make any real decision changes.  It basically just gave them more money for nothing.  I wouldn't necessarily see a big problem with that..if they were not at the same time claiming that they need every buck they can get.

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i say good, eliminate collective bargaining for teachers. it's not as if they're working in the sweat shops around the turn of the 20th century. they're certainly not underpaid, and they're not being taken advantage of by greedy corporate bosses.

and this isn't just about the collective bargaining. the biggest threat to the unions (which have grown more powerful than the barons they were formed to combat) is that this bill would allow union members to get out of the unions. currently, it's like a gang. you can't get out even if you want to. no matter what, you're still stuck paying dues. also, it's the annual voting on remaining organized that's a major threat.

and this isn't like it would eliminate their ability to get raises, increases would just be linked to the state of the economy, or through public referendum. aka, it puts the power back into the hands of the people who the teachers work for.

and you know what? democracy doesn't work by running beyond the state line in order to avoid a vote. the way democracy works, is that if you don't like a piece of legislation, you vote against it. that's it. i have very little sympathy for the public sector unions that have sucked governments dry from local and state levels, all the way to the federal level.

in the words of rick flair, "enough is enough, and it's time for a change! WOO!"

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I saw an interview with some of the students, who were there carrying sign in protest, they looked jr. high age. When ask why they was there one student said he wasn't too sure, he got to school and they loaded the students in buses telling them they was going on a school trip. On the bus the teacher was telling them something about how the governor wanted to "fire the teachers, close the schools and make us go to work or something like that. I don't want that idiot telling me I have to work."

I love it, a real education on how to control the masses with lies as well as very little or misleading information, by taking the students out of school, without parental permission, to a rally to support the unions.

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it's about like seeing me-chell obama on the disney channel promoting her little agenda of culinary fascism.

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Originally Posted by Farmer Up:
I saw an interview with some of the students, who were there carrying sign in protest, they looked jr. high age. When ask why they was there one student said he wasn't too sure, he got to school and they loaded the students in buses telling them they was going on a school trip. On the bus the teacher was telling them something about how the governor wanted to "fire the teachers, close the schools and make us go to work or something like that. I don't want that idiot telling me I have to work."

I love it, a real education on how to control the masses with lies as well as very little or misleading information, by taking the students out of school, without parental permission, to a rally to support the unions.

and we wonder why our kids are coming out of high school knowing so little.....

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I'd add to this except Scott has covered most of my thoughts on the subject except for one thing: The lawmakers who didn't show up for the vote should be penalized. I don't know what kind of penalty but it is total crap to behave the way they behaved. You can't refuse to show up because you don't like the bill.

If what Farmer saw is accurate reporting, those teachers should be fired IMMEDIATELY!!