The Wisconsin State Assembly began a session Thursday afternoon to vote on a bill that sharply curtails union rights for public workers. The session comes a day after the Republican-led state Senate used a legislative maneuver to approve the bill without the 14 Democratic senators who fled the state in an effort to block it.
The bill proposed by Gov. Scott Walker is considered the most devastating blow to labor unions in many years and in the last three weeks has drawn thousands of union supporters to the state Capitol in protest.
The Assembly has already passed an earlier version of the bill.
The GOP-run Assembly was scheduled to vote on the measure at 11 a.m. Central Time. But the vote was delayed when some Democratic representatives could not make it into the chamber as at least 100 protesters packed the hallway of the Capitol and pounded on drums, the Associated Press reported. About 50 protesters were carried out by police, and the building was locked down briefly while officers did a security review. The lawmakers gathered in front of the doors to the chamber, which were opened just before 11:30 a.m., AP said.
Earlier Thursday, the Democratic senators who fled Wisconsin last month to try to stall a vote on the measure said they were preparing to return to the state capital and fight back against what one of them called "political thuggery in its worst form."
State Sen. Robert Jauch said the Democrats are discussing ways to overturn the legislation.
After stripping the bill of fiscal measures that require a 20-member quorum for action, Senate Republicans abruptly passed the measure 18-1. Republican Sen. Dale Schultz cast the lone no vote. Analysts say the bill would cripple most of the state's public employee unions.
"They acted more like a third coup than a democratic institution that has long been revered," Jauch said in a telephone interview Thursday.
He said that because the vote was over, there was no reason for the senators to remain out of state. At least two might already be back in Wisconsin, and the rest were preparing to return, Jauch said, adding that he might return on Saturday.
Walker spoke during a Thursday news conference in Milwaukee shortly before the state Assembly was scheduled to take up the measure. It's expected to be quickly approved. Walker said that he'll sign the legislation "as quickly as I can legally," AP said.
"The whole world is watching!" protesters shouted.
Read more at The Washington Post.
