Wisconsin state employee contracts fail in lame duck session

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December 16, 2010

By Kyle Maichle

MADISON, Wisconsin: The Lame Duck session of the Wisconsin Legislature had a dramatic ending as state employees are still working without a contract. Two outgoing Democratic State Senators casted the deciding vote to stall overdue labor agreements[1].

The voting started in the Assembly. Many observers expected a close vote on all of the agreements in both houses of the Legislature. To ensure passage of the agreements in the Assembly, Democratic leaders had to get assemblyman Jeff Wood out of jail in order to cast the deciding vote. Wood, an Independent, has work-release privileges as part of his jail sentence for drunken driving. All 16 of the deals were approved by the Assembly on 48-47 votes[1].

Shortly after the Assembly approved the contracts, the Senate had its turn to approve the deals. Before the floor votes were casted, outgoing Senator Russ Decker's floor speech set the tone for remainder of the evening[1]. The outgoing Senator said: "there is no reason the next Legislature cannot take up these contracts. Now that the election has been held and the voters have spoken, I do not feel comfortable casting a vote in favor of these contracts.”[2].

After the first contract was defeated on a 16-16 tie vote, both parties recessed into caucus. It was during caucus that fellow Senate Democrats deposed Decker as Majority Leader and replaced him with Dave Hansen. After caucus broke, all the other labor deals failed on 16-16 tie votes. Outgoing Democratic Senator Jeff Plale also joined Decker and the Republicans in opposing the agreements. The lame-duck session was adjourned the next morning after it became clear there would not be enough votes in the Senate to approve the agreements[1].

The 2009-2011 collective bargaining agreements include a 3.3% pay cut and 16 furlough days[1]. Over $100 million in concessions were made by the unions[1].

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Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Democrats give up attempt to approve state labor contracts," December 16, 2010
  2. ↑ WisPolitics, "Sen. Decker: Statement on contract vote," December 16, 2010
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