Senators Continue To Jam Right To Work Movement

Madison – They're all camped out across the border in Illinois, and Winsconsin's Democratic State Senators don't appear to have any plans to come home soon.

The way things stand, Governor Scott Walker's plan to bust the unions and make Wisconsin a right to work state is stymied by the lack of one member to make a quorum in the upper chamber.

The Republican-controlled Assembly intended to debate the measure and vote on it today, but it's a no go the way things stand.

Teachers, firefighters and police officers have agreed to compromise on pay cuts that average 8 percent, but the Governor has refused to hear their entreaties.

That's not what he's after. He wants to make the state open to all comers and not a closed shop, unionized state in which collective bargaining under the law is the only way to go.

More than 68,000 people jammed the rotunda of the state capitol building on Saturday, a spectacle that has riveted the nation and polarized the political camps to left and right.

On the left, Democrats and independents want to preserve the status quo in unionized labor, believing there is strength in numbers and such issues as health care, pay, environmental and safety regulations are best handled at the negotiating table come contract time.

On the right, Tea Parties, Republicans and Libertarians demand an end to union control over employer-worker relations. They say it's wrecking the economy.

Government accountability studies dispute that logic.

Where the Governor says his state is facing a multibillion dollar budget deficit, the liberals and working people say economic studies prove it would have been a budget surplus had he not moved to lower taxes for corporations and the very wealthy population of this populist prairie state.

Right wingers cite unconfirmed reports that teachers' health care insurance packages average about $1,000 per month. Left wingers point out the fact that all insurance rates must be approved by a state regulatory agency, something which usually favors insurance carriers.

No matter which route you may go, the Wisconsites have something in common with old East Texas county boys like Jimmy Caughron. They know you can fix just about anything with duct tape. Witnesseth.