Author: jplucas

Citing Wisconsin?s gaping budget shortfall for this year and even larger ones expected in the years ahead, Gov. Scott Walker proposed a sweeping plan on Friday to cut benefits for public employees in the state and to take away most of their unions? ability to bargain.

Governor Scott Walker has sent out a letter via e-mail to state workers explaining to them what his new budget proposal would do and why the actions are necessary.

Wisconsin public employee unions and their supporters are currently engaged in planning their response to Governor Scott Walker?s program to curtail negotiating and organizing rights via a budget bill announced Friday. Three public protests and lobbying efforts at the state Capitol in Madison are planned for next week, and at least one longer-term plan for a sustained campaign against the governor and his Republican and associated allies are in the works.

Hundreds of Wisconsin?s public sector workers crammed into the cafeteria at Middleton High School Sunday afternoon to vehemently speak out against Gov. Walker?s latest proposals.

The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO has launched an advertising campaign against Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed bill that will take away almost all collective bargaining rights for most public workers.

Public employees, students, and teachers rallied Sunday against Governor Walker?s plan to fix the state?s budget shortfall.

Gov. Scott Walker is putting his controversial budget repair bill on the fast track, urging lawmakers to pass it this coming week.

Everyone who works for the state or local governments would lose their right to negotiate everything from vacations to sick leave under Gov. Scott Walker?s budget repair bill — except for local police, firefighters and state troopers.

As union leaders prepare to fight a budget repair bill that will strip away much of their bargaining power, Governor Scott Walker says he?s prepared for unrest.

The head of a union representing local government workers decries a ?radical plan? from the governor. Rick Badger is executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 40, which represents about 33,000 local workers.

Governor Scott Walker unveils a budget repair bill that would strip most state workers of their collective bargaining rights. The measure is designed to close a $137 million gap in the current state budget. (Video.)

Gov. Scott Walker?s plan to erase almost all collective bargaining rights for most public workers is now squarely in the domain of the Legislature, which could act on it within days.

In a move that could be a preview of what?s to come in cash-strapped states, Wisconsin?s newly elected Republican governor announced a sweeping plan on Friday that would cut benefits for state employees, including those in the University of Wisconsin system, and eradicate the collective-bargaining rights that academic employees won just two years ago.

UW system leaders hope that the deep cuts to state employee benefits Gov. Walker proposed today will create more support for a plan to give the university more autonomy from the state, including allowing UW to set higher tuition rates and pay professors more. In a letter to UW employees, UW System President Kevin Reilly made clear that pursuing a new course for the university is a higher priority than fighting Walker over state aid.

In the wake of Gov. Scott Walker?s announcement of a budget repair bill, some University of Wisconsin students and faculty are preparing to mobilize in opposition an act that would eliminate many collective bargaining rights of unionized employees.

Governor Scott Walker on Friday proposed a “budget repair” bill that may fix the state budget but could do some real damage to the personal budgets of faculty members and others who work at the University of Wisconsin System.

Will the Capitol Square be Madison?s Tahrir Square in reverse?It certainly sent “Mubarek quitting Egypt” to the second rank in Saturday morning?s Wisconsin State Journal.

Gov. Scott Walker told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Thursday that he will propose removing nearly all public employee collective bargaining rights to help plug a $3.6 billion budget hole.

Gov. Scott Walker will seek to eliminate almost all collective bargaining rights of state and local public workers as part of his plan for fixing Wisconsin’s budget deficit, a move one Democratic leader called an “assault on workers in the state.” The bill also would remove the right, granted under former Gov. Jim Doyle, for University of Wisconsin faculty and staff to form unions.

Several campus groups hosted a state budget roundtable Thursday to discuss Gov. Scott Walker?s upcoming budget and the impact it will have on the UW system.

Gov. Scott Walker may propose refinancing the state?s debt and tapping Wisconsin?s SeniorCare prescription drug program as a way to repair the current state budget.

State worker unions in Wisconsin could soon go the way of the dodo.