WISCONSIN PROTESTS

Ohio is moving faster than Wisconsin to weaken public unions. Ohio's Senate voted on Wednesday to prohibit public employees from striking and to restrict certain collective bargaining rights, including negotiations on pensions and health care.

The text of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s speech regarding the budget:

The Wisconsin State Employees Union (WSEU) accused new Republican Gov. Scott Walker of unfair labor practices for refusing to bargain in a complaint filed Monday with a state employment commission. The legal challenge comes amid a standoff between Walker and state legislative Democrats over a proposal to limit bargaining rights

The Wisconsin Senate still can't do business due to missing members but the other half of the state's legislature, the Assembly, on Friday passed a bill that will partially take away collective bargaining power for state employees, part of a broader bill with various measures which Gov. Scott Walker says are meant to repair the state's budget.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker revealed pressure tactics, unwillingness to compromise, views on protesting crowds and his inspiration in tough budget talks in a call with a prank caller prentending to be a conservative billionaire activist on Tuesday.

The following is a transcript of a nearly 20 minute conversation on February 22, 2011 between Ian Murphy, a columnist for the website known as The Buffalo Beast, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Murphy was posing as conservative activist David Koch.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker warned of thousands of layoffs ahead if Democrats which fled to Illinois don't return to vote on a bill which cuts some collective bargaining rights for state workers.

Indiana Democrats are imitating their Wisconsin peers and have reportedly refused to show up for a vote. Members of the state of Indiana's House of Representatives are headed to neighboring Illinois to avoid a vote anti-union legislation, according to a report.

A fascinating battle is brewing in the state of Wisconsin between the newly-elected Republican governor and thousands of public sector workers who are outraged over proposals to sharply reduce (or eliminate) the union’s right to collective bargain.

Potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate Sarah Palin wrote the following letter on her Facebook page, expressing her solidarity with the union movement, but warning of the need to make sacrifices.

Clarus' nationwide study found that 64 percent of American people think state workers should not be able to join labor unions.

It's the local battle with national implications, as Washington, in the midst of its own budget battle, has weighed in on the situation in Wisconsin that is drawing thousands of upset state workers to rally in the state's capital - many teachers included - over a proposal to eliminate some collective bargaining rights as part of the bid by the Governor to balance the state's budget immediately and make it easier to do so going forward.

Thousands of state workers and their supporters in Wisconsin have besieged the capitol in Madison to protest against huge budget cuts proposed by Governor Scott Walker.

More than 10,000 union public employees and supporters packed the Capitol Square and the inside of the statehouse on Tuesday to protest Gov. Scott Walker's budget plan to strip many bargaining rights from state and local government workers. Republicans legislators hope to get the bill, announced by the new Republican governor last Friday, to Walker's