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Wisconsin Republicans: Bring Right To Work to a vote.

By: Dennis Pedrie (Diary)  |  February 22nd, 2011 at 02:32 PM  | 

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From the diaries by Erick

I’m not an expert in how the legislative process works in Wisconsin, but I’ve heard enough in the last few days to gather that the Democrats have been able to stop the budget bills from passing because they require a quorum. Without the Dems being there, the GOP is one vote short of the required number.

The flip side of that is that non budget bills do not require a quorum, so the legislature can do pretty much anything that they want, without any interference from Democratic State Senators, so long as it isn’t budget related.

So my question is this: Why not bring up a vote on Right To Work? It’s not a budget bill, so the GOP wouldn’t need a quorum to pass it. They have the votes in the House, and with no Democrats left in the Senate, it would be assured passage.

The main purpose of bringing such a vote to the floor would be to lure the Democrats back to Madison. The union bosses running the Democrat’s show wouldn’t allow such a bill to pass unchallenged. The Democrats would be forced to come back to Madison. Even if Right To Work wasn’t passed, the Senate Majority Leader would suddenly have the quorum he needs to pass Governor Walker’s budget.

It’s a win-win, as far as I can tell. Let me know if I’m missing something.

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Originally posted at http://bit.ly/eihagh

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COMMENTS

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  • jb13

    It will also effectively drive a wedge between the fat-and-happy public worker unions and the lean-and-mean private sector unions. Would the Teamsters, AFL-CIO, Laborers, Plumbers and Pipefitters, IBEW, SEIU, UAW, etc., really be willing to sacrifice all those union dues just to make sure AFSCME and the teachers unions can keep their right to collectively bargain on health benefits?

    It would be interesting to watch it play out. This would be simply a brilliant hardball move. Love it.

    • msctex

      . . .for days now. The fact it has not been seized upon is worrisome.

      • Joe Cor

        Doing this is a no-brainer. We should hold off putting Walker up on Mt. Rushmore until he pushes for this and all the other votes he can possibly have without the Democrats in Madison. Right now, he and the Wisconsin Senate Republicans are acting a lot like how I’ve come to expect post-Reagan-era Republicans to act.

        • congressworksforus

          Every day, the unions and their democrat allies are digging the whole deeper and deeper and deeper, tying the noose around their necks tighter and tighter and tighter.

          Now they’re calling for a general strike. Good luck with that one!

          • Joe Cor

            Hope you are correct.

          • salander

            The Wisconsin Dems should just go back and face the fact that they are going to lose. But this whole episode just shows the stupidity of supermajority requirements in legislatures. The majority was elected by the people, and the majority should get its way. The idea that a minority of one chamber of a legislature should block the whole legislature from acting is undemocratic.

          • JWR

            Does that include Senators’ right to filibuster? Don’t forget that supermajorities can be important from stopping Democrats’ socialist agenda – let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater here.

          • BrendanW

            The dems are paying a high price in preventing a quorum. System is working. Republicans should play hard ball and reform every non-financial piece of legislation they want. I guess they have caught Lyndsey Graham-itis.

          • Bill S

            at least as we’re used to hearing in the U.S. Senate. As I understand it, the requirement is that a quorum be present in order to conduct Senate business and/or vote. The winning vote is still a majority vote. Requiring a quorum to conduct business is pretty standard parliamentary procedure.

            The fact that there are no legal ramifications for cutting and running is the core issue. They should be able to arrest them for obstructing the state’s business. Alternatively, WI should have a law that states that after x days of absence, they lose their seat. Or something.

          • Flagstaff

            The Wisconsin Republican position RIGHT NOW should be

            “The duties of a state senator consists of more than just voting on bills on the floor.

            It also includes being available to one’s constituents, and being accessible to other legislators to hash out differences of opinion.

            A major responsibility is to introduce amendments and debate bills on the floor, attempting to convince others that you have the right ideas, especially if you are in the minority. That requires one’s presence in the Senate.

            Finally, legislators are expected to set an example of proper behavior for young people, and that includes facing up to responsibilities and accepting reality when you are going to be on the losing side of an issue, not trying to nullify an election through unethical behavior, and not collecting one’s salary while deliberately avoiding the work one was sworn in to do.”

            Whether any of that is true or not, it sounds as if it OUGHT to be true, and it’s therefore worth saying. It’s an effective counter to “but if they are here, they lose the vote, and it isn’t illegal.”

          • msctex

            Letting the opposition destroy itself is the simplest approach, and if that is the plan, I’m all for it.

          • Flagstaff

            the more chances Republicans have to step on their own tongues and lose the war.

            Never underestimate the ability of Republicans and the Democrat Approved Press to hand a victory to Democrats, given enough time.

        • salander

          The Dems lost the election. Badly. Doesn’t that mean the GOP, which now has a majority in both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature, and controls the governorship, has a right to govern? It does!! If elections mean anything, they mean that the people who win get to govern. The Wisoncons Democrats ought to change their name to unDems since they clearly don’t believe in democracy. The Wisconsin Constitution has a supermajority quorum requirement for financial issues, which is why the unDems are able to block legislation right now. My point is that the GOP won, fair and square, and now they ought to be able to do what the people elected them to do.

          • proudgop

            I heard that some Dems voted by fax yesterday was this right?

            I also heard 1 Republican is not voting with Walker in State Senate can anyone tell us who this is?

      • http://redwhiteandblueblog.com/ generalgrant

        Part of his rationale for the entire bill is that the collective bargaining and union dues aspects are tied to the fiscal part of the bill. That’s probably right indirectly and politically, though legally it’d probably be a weaker argument.

        • writeblock

          The Republicans should just do it–and worry about the legalities later. If the Dems want to make this a legal issue–let them return. Then when they do, pass the original bill.

  • MF

    People everywhere are wising up to stupidity of liberal policies. (Well, not here in California, but too many of them are high on their medical marijuana…) It appears that activist judges are the last bastion for liberals.

    • caboose

      has the right to work law. So they could not say much when the States do the same. The right to work act does not prevent organizing of a union, however, it means that employees have the option of belonging to a union or not to belong to the union. All federal unions work under the right to work law.

      • Jon E. Schultz II (IlliniJon)

        I know you’re talking about going for the whole thing, but I think we’ve (Wis) already framed our argument and laid out what we’re asking for. To go back and say we’re now simply going to wipe out all unions would not sit well.

        I think we’re winning the argument already…doctors handing out fake sick notes, teachers missing 4 days of school, Senate Dems fleeing…it’s not resonating with the public. However, if we overreach based on what we’ve already said we’re asking for, I think we lose the PR gains we’ve made.

        I agree with the right to work concept, and hope we’ll continue to work towards that.

        Jon

        • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

          It just allows individuals the right to not join and not pay dues to keep their job. If the unions are right and nobody would not join a union if they could, then they have nothing to fear in opposing it. I don’t see this as an overreach at all.

        • carolina

          about the issues for city govt when he was part of the Milwaukee govt. He knows the current collective bargaining laws tie the hands of all local govts so they can not effectively respond to a need to reduce spending.
          He is totally committed to getting this change in place because serious cuts are about to hit all of the local govts. The State of WI is about to reduce $$ to the local govts. Their backs are against the wall. I totally support Walker.

        • Dennis Pedrie

          I saw it as more of a tool to force the Democrats back to Madison. Of course if we got Right To Work, that would be cool too. But just luring the Democrats back to the state would be enough to pass the main thrust of Walker’s agenda.

      • mkozikowski

        that the Unions cannot compel their members to pay dues or extort pay for Political Action Comities.
        So, they become rather a minor player in the grand scheme of things, which, frankly is where they belong.
        Minor and on the back burner.

  • victrola

    If there’s one thing we’ve learned from this fiasco, it’s that rather than nibbling at the edges of this problem, we should go ahead and go nuclear and deal with lasting solutions.

    If I were a Republican Governor, instead of trying to cut pay for state workers and have Battle Royale over say a 2% cut in a pension plan or instituting furloughs, I’d just go ahead and push to make the state a right to work state, especially if you have the votes in the legislature.

    Now is our chance to neuter the Unions, we have the public behind us, and the votes in many of these states.

  • sharonmcp

    I just read on another blog, a liberal blog surprisingly, that Wisconsin Senate rule 16 specifically prohibits Senators from failing to attend a Senate session.

    • sharonmcp

      Wisconsin Senate Rule 16:

      “members of the senate may not be absent from the daily session during the entire day without first obtaining a leave of absence. The leave may be granted at any time by a majority vote of the senate.”

      I still haven’t been able to find out what the repercussions are for breaking the rule.

  • 1689

    “Why not bring up a vote on Right To Work?”

    Because in life timing is everything. Walker’s got to let the public get really really angry at the Unions’ crybaby, skip-work, fraudulent-doctor-notes, screw-the-kids, trash-the-Statehouse, anti-democratic tactics. The Union’s will probably overplay their hand in some gradiose fashion — the thing about mobs is that they’re usually full of stupid people acting stupidly. Once they do, the upswell turns into cataclysm. The public goes wild-dog rabid at the Unions. Then the Governor will fire the teachers who went on strike; the House passes Right to Work. Game over. Legislators come back with tail between their legs, where they will bend over & receive the penultimate coup de grace – whatever budget & spending bills are needed to cement the humiliation. Walker is playing his cards perfectly so far. The final coup de grace — elections in 2012. Bye-bye Demo-losers!

    • Flagstaff

      Or do they just think it’s clever political posturing?

      C. Krauthammer had a different take on this tonight.

      He came down on the side of adjusting the bill to remove the fiscal parts and passing the union restrictive parts. At that point, the governor has half of what he needs, and there will be no need for the Democrats to stay away, because they’ve already agreed to pay more for health and pensions. Remember, layoffs have been threatened.

      Sayeth he:

      “I think the governor is going to make a big mistake if he goes to layoffs next week. He will have gratuitously created the victims, hostages, scapegoats… (interrupted, Reagan moment, air traffic controllers…)

      But the tactics have to be different here. What he can do… is to take out of the bill the parts that don’t have to do with fiscal matters….

      [If he passes the take-aways] he’s won, because all that’s left is the give-backs, which the unions have already agreed they’re going to do on the money, and there’ll be no reason for a Wisconsin Democrat to stay in Chicago and hide….

      …if he goes to selective layoffs [which Walker has said are necessary if the bill isn't passed] he’s gonna lose the public relations battle which he’s winning now, and it’s all going to be decided on public opinion.”