Free Republic

Largest state unions won't seek recertification by Thursday deadline Madison - By the end of Thursday, the major state employee unions covering tens of thousands of workers will have effectively lost their official status. Top leaders for those unions say they won't seek to meet the high hurdle for keeping that current status laid out in Gov. Scott Walker's union bargaining law. With a deadline set for the close of business Thursday, so far only four smaller state unions have said they'll seek to keep their status by winning a difficult recertification election. Marty Beil, executive director of the 23,000-member...

Demonstrators at the Wisconsin capitol, union representatives and absent Democratic state senators concede in interviews that they don't object to a bill requiring teachers and other public employees to pay 12.5 percent of their health insurance (up from five percent), or up to half of their pension deposits. It is the curbing of collective bargaining that has brought on near hysteria and a fierce campaign to discredit Governor Scott Walker's legislation. For the union leaders the consequences of passage of the legislation could be devastating to their sinecures. Amid all the shouting, placards and banging on pots and pans in...