BREAKING: WI Repub Senate May Use Trick Tomorrow To Strip Collective Bargaining (daily kos)

[kpete]

Mon Feb 21, 2011 at 09:37 AM EST
BREAKING: WI Repub Senate May Use Trick Tomorrow To Strip Collective Bargaining

by Giles Goat Boy

State Senator Jon Erpenbach was just on WTDY in Madison breaking the news that the Republican senators may try to strip the collective bargaining language from the budget bill, attach it as an amendment to a non-monetary bill, and pass it with a voice vote. This might happen tomorrow - Tuesday. (edited...to clarify that the collective bargaining language is being considered as an amendment to another unrelated bill.)

......

The Senate needs 20 members present to vote on the budget bill, but only 17 for certain bills that are not related to finance (I believe that is correct, please update me in the comments if I have this wrong.)

I'm doing this quickly because I heard the interview on my way to work.

.....................

Call the Republican senators and tell them to listen to the people of Wisconsin. Gotta run.

Solidarity.

P.S. My wife worked with Senator Erpenbach's wife at a school in Madison a number of years ago. That's Wisconsin.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/21/947870/-BREAKING:-WI-Repub-Senate-May-Use-Trick-Tomorrow-To-Strip-Collective-Bargaining

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[drm604]

2. Bastards!

:grr:

[bbgrunt]

3. slimy bastards. They are asking for war.

[rdking647]

34. dont kid yourself

its already war

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. Any rules against non-germane amendments?

:shrug:

[Lefta Dissenter]

5. EXACTLY

My SO just brought this up to me last night. He actually whispered it, not to be romantic, but because he was almost afraid to speak the words out loud.

edited to add http://legis.wisconsin.gov/
the link for the Wisconsin State Legislature
There is a link for "Who is my Legislator," in case you're not sure who "represents" you (using the term loosely), and links on the left for contact information for each of the members.

[yourout]

6. I dont know if it can be pulled off but this should trigger a state wide stike/shutdown.

[elocs]

10. I live in WI and here is a reality check: this is not France.

Any statewide strike will not shutdown the state. There are simply not enough union members anymore.

[Bandit]

18. Aren't ALL state workers Union.

I thought that was what this was all about. Republicans don't believe government should be Unionized. They don't like Unions Period but most especially in Government..It takes away some of their Power...

[elocs]

22. Again, this is not France. I don't believe state unions can just call such a strike

without risking having Walker simply replace them with the many unemployed that are looking for work. So I think that he would love to see state workers strike.

[Greybnk48]

26. No. Those of us that teach for the U.W. System are not

Union.

[rdking647]

19. what can be done

but state workers can gum up the works.. make sure every rule is followed,dot every I.
I wonder how teh GOP will like it taking days to clean the streets after a snow. Multi hour DMV lines. huge delays in processing tax returns.
and teh Dem senators should stop progress on EVERY spending bill. make the state run out of money.

[elocs]

20. Not plowing snow, multi hour DMV lines, yeah that's sure to generate huge public support.

Yep, it's a brilliant plan. Let's do it right away.

[LanternWaste]

21. Which appears to be different than

Which appears to be quite different than the initial posit of "not enough to shut down the state..."

[elocs]

25. Annoying people does not mean you shut down the state.

Is that really a difficult concept. Evidently.

[AlabamaLibrul]

47. What do you call the ~nightmare scenarios~ you suggest, if not shutting down the state's functions?

[Marr]

23. Do you always resign yourself to defeat before the fight starts?

From, 'they're inconsequential, no one will notice their absence' to 'oh yeah, shutting everything down will just piss people off' in the space of two posts? Seriously?

[elocs]

24. I do resign myself to calling an idea stupid when I think it is stupid.

Oh, by the way, I live in Wisconsin. I notice you don't.

A strike is the very last thing that any union should do and it should not be the first thing considered.

[Marr]

28. Yeah, I know you live in Wisconsin. You've mentioned it several times.

It's a nice little punctuation in between all the "why bother".

[rdking647]

29. so whats your suggestion

meekly submit??? continue an ineffectual protest?
thats why I meant by the dems playing nice and not realizing its war. thats why the GOP kicked our asses in november. they play for keeps and we pretend like everything will be ok. It wont. The GOP has declared war and its time dems got off their fat lazy asses and realized it.

[fascisthunter]

31. ignore that poster

[AlabamaLibrul]

50. Presumably you missed the part where the first thing considered and DONE was all financial concessio

ns.

[BrotherLove]

41. Who said anything about the public areas?

I heard the snowplows and trash trucks that do the places where the rich people that Scott gave tax cuts to have some sort of "maintenance" issue. Same for the ones that do the Governors house and Republican state senators.

The rest of the state they work fine.

[WillyT]

7. K & R !!!

:kick:

[rdking647]

33. what does k&r mean

im new here. i see k&r in a lot of threads. what does it mean?

[kudzu22]

36. K&R = kick and recommend

[rdking647]

43. thanks

[lonestarnot]

8. Took that long for those stupid fuckers to figure that out? Brainiacs who do not give a fucking

iota about people. If this happens, which it will, what then Wisconsin?

[global1]

9. If They So That They Will Have Sealed Their Fate Forever In Wisconsin.......

Don't look for another Repug win - at least in our lifetime. This will turn Wisconsin to a solid blue state.

[lonestarnot]

13. Not only that, away goes their argument re balance of the budget. Stupid fucker, never was a budget

issue. Just Union busting bullshit.

[MadBadger]

15. No It wont

There are way too many RW fuck heads in this state who agree with Walker. And with possible new voting laws that require and ID, students wont show up as much as they did in the past and we will lose more votes

[upi402]

30. I didn't know about a new ID requirement

Do you think this movement will awaken students and others though? Thom Hartmann was just saying that on the radio. His guest said that old labor fighters and civil rights movement veterans say that this sort of populist uprising goes to the bone of many people and wakes them up.

Is that going on too?

But I know what you're saying, it's th same here and this is the most liberal county in a blue (dog) state, so... let's hope.

[glinda]

46. Again...MN.-run House & Senate doing the same.

[glinda]

45. If they fix the voting systems.

[drm604]

11. I think if they do this

the talk about recalls will get REALLY serious. According to another DU post there are currently eight Wisconsin state senators who are eligible for recall. Perhaps all eight of them need to receive large numbers of polite phone calls alerting them to this fact.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=433&topic_id=615134

Here are the senators with their district numbers, city of residence, and total votes needed to cause a recall election:

District 2 - Robert Cowles (Green Bay) - needs 15,800 signatures
8 - Alberta Darling (River Hills) - needs 20,300 signatures
10 - Sheila Harsdorf (River Hills) - needs 15,500 signatures
14 - Luther Olsen (Ripon) - needs 14,500 signatures
18 - Randy Hopper (Fond du Lac) - needs 15,268 signatures
20 - Glenn Grothman (West Bend) - needs 20,000 signatures
28 - Mary Lazich (New Berlin) - needs 20,900 signatures
32 - Dan Kapanke (La Crosse) - needs 15,400 signatures

[glinda]

48. Are they workigng on this? They had better asap.

[rdking647]

12. gop dirty tricks

if he does that all union workers in wisconsin,state employees or otherwise should walk out.
and the dem senators should walk out of every spending bill that walker introduces so nothing get done in teh state.
if the GOP want to play games,its time to fight back.. The GOP is using the nuclear option ,its time for the dems to use it back..

[slackmaster]

14. When the cats are away, the mice will play.

It looks like the GOPers in the state senate have carte blanche to push through all kinds of things the Democrats would oppose.

[Brickbat]

16. It's time to up the game, and people had better figure out right quick what they're willing to do.

[glinda]

49. I think sometimes citizens' arrests and forcing them into prisons is the answer.

[AzDar]

17. K & R

:kick:

[Solly Mack]

27. K&R

[fascisthunter]

32. big huge mistake on his part.... welcome to backlash you greedy pathetic pricks

selling out Americans and America.... you know what that makes you. Maybe the protesting should be on the governor's own property.

[Hannah Bell]

35. kr

[kudzu22]

37. Never interrupt your opponent while he's making a mistake

It could be that the best thing to do is let them pass their bills with the Democrats out of state. It will just guarantee that they lose the next election and many more to come. What can be done with a simple majority can be undone with a simple majority.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

38. Classic procedural move and quite valid (unfortunately). I expect them to go for it

If the Democratic members are not there to put up a fuss, it passes. If they are there, the budget version goes through. IMO, passage is a done deal.

What is not done is the courts nor the public's reaction. That is where the focus needs to be.

[leftstreet]

39. K&R

[cascadiance]

40. One Republican to call might be Dan Kapanke of LaCrosse...

In this earlier article, it sounds like he had his doubts (aka, he's worried about his constituents getting upset!)

If enough of his constituents called and warned him that such a vote, especially a voice vote with no accountability would bring down the wrath of ALL voters against those that voted for it, and anyone therefore in "swing" districts would have to pay for it next election.

http://www.channel3000.com/politics/26886409/detail.html

Here's another article that shows he might be threatened with a recall if he votes wrong. I'm guessing there are other Republican legislators in the same boat!

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/article_be8d6658-3de9-11e0-ba18-001cc4c03286.html

[Justpat]

42. Bastards.

I have never used this repulsive smilie before it seems appropriate here:

:puke:

[HereSince1628]

44. I heard that they had abandoned this approach...

pretty hard to know what's true.

If anyone has a Lexus account and can tell us when and in what circumstance the quorum is in effect for the WI senate it would help.