Union Fight Heats Up

By KRIS MAHER And DOUGLAS BELKIN

MADISON, Wis.—Democratic lawmakers fled the state Thursday in an effort to torpedo a closely watched vote on what would be the nation's first major overhaul of union laws in years, as government workers flooded the statehouse for a third day seeking to block passage of the bill.

Wisconsin senate Democrats fled the state today in protest of Republican Gov. Scott Walker's budget bill, which continued to draw massive protests from public-employee union members. One of the missing senators talks to Kelsey Hubbard & Bob O'Brien.

Surrounded by thousands of tightly packed protesters, including teachers who had been encouraged by union leaders to show up in force, state senators gathered around 11 a.m. to vote on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to limit collective-bargaining rights for most state employees.

The governor's proposal, part of a bill aimed at overcoming a $137 million deficit in the current budget and a projected $3.6 billion hole in the next two years, would allow collective bargaining on wages, but not pensions and health care. Workers would be required to pay more for both. And raises would be limited to the inflation rate, unless voters approved steeper boosts.

But a roll call revealed that while 19 GOP senators were present, none of the 14 Democrats were in the chamber, leaving the Senate one vote short of the 20 needed to vote on the measure.

As word spread that the Democrats had boycotted, protesters—many wearing orange T-shirts reading, "Assembly Democrats: Fight for Working Families!"—erupted in cheers of "Thank you, thank you."

Wisconsin state senator Jon Erpenbach explains why he and his Democratic colleagues went into hiding rather than vote on a controversial GOP-sponsored budget bill that would strip public-workers of collective-bargaining rights.

By the end of the day, after a fruitless door-to-door search for Democrats in the Capitol by the sergeant-at-arms, the Senate had adjourned without a vote, and Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller had called into CNN to say he and his colleagues were in "what we consider a secure location outside the capital."

Late Thursday, Gov. Walker, who could hear chanting every time he opened his office door, blasted the Democrats' move as a "stunt" and urged them to return to vote on what he called a "bold political move but a modest, modest proposal" that would preserve benefits for public employees that remained "better than what most people are getting across the state."

The extraordinary scene was being followed in statehouses across the country, as a test case of both union clout and the political will of newly elected legislators. Wisconsin was at the front edge of voter discontent in 2010, with voters agitated about public spending electing Gov. Walker to succeed Democrat Jim Doyle and handing both houses of the legislature to the GOP.

"If anybody didn't know this was coming," Gov. Walker said of his bill Thursday, "they've been asleep for two years."

If the governor's efforts succeed, other states are expected to try to follow, as governors grapple with deepening deficits. Many new governors in both parties have blamed the states' fiscal crisis in part on what they say are overly generous benefits and pension obligations granted over many years to organized government workers.

Proposals similar to Gov. Walker's have been made in New Jersey and Ohio. In Columbus, Ohio, thousands gathered Thursday to protest a Republican proposal that would eliminate collective-bargaining rights for many of that state's 400,000 public-sector workers.

The Wisconsin battle echoed on the national stage, where a battle over federal spending and cuts continued in the wake of President Barack Obama's budget proposal earlier this week. On Wednesday, Mr. Obama told a Milwaukee TV station that "some of what I've heard coming out of Wisconsin, where you're just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain, generally seems like more of an assault on unions."

Organizing for America, which is run in conjunction with the Democratic National Committee, was helping mobilize protesters on Thursday through its blog and Twitter updates that included a "call to action" to phone state senators.

House Speaker John Boehner weighed in on the other side, saying Republicans "are daring to speak the truth about the dire fiscal challenges Americans face at all levels of government, and daring to commit themselves to solutions that will liberate our economy and help put our citizens on a path to prosperity."

Gov. Walker first introduced his "budget repair" bill a week ago, setting off the firestorm that has swept the Capitol. Besides limiting collective-bargaining rights for most workers—excepting police, firefighters and others involved in public safety—it would require government workers, who currently contribute little or nothing to their pensions, to contribute 5.8% of their pay to pensions, and pay at least 12.6% of health-care premiums, up from an average of 6%.

In exchange, Gov. Walker has pledged no layoffs or furloughs for the state's 170,000 public employees. He has said 5,500 state jobs and 5,000 local jobs would be saved under his plan, which would save $30 million in the current budget and $300 million in the two-year budget that begins July 1.

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Andy Manis/Associated Press

Teachers Maira Rivera, left, and Karine Sloan protested Thursday at the state capitol building in Madison, Wis., voicing their opposition to Gov. Scott Walker's bill to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many state workers.

On Thursday, communicating by phone, the Democrats who fled the state told reporters they wanted to meet with Gov. Walker to discuss concessions. The governor has said Democrats can offer amendments to change the bill, but he won't concede on bargaining rights with unions.

Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach told The Wall Street Journal the walkout was "the only option we have to slow down what we think is a pretty extreme piece of legislation. So what we did was hop in our cars and drive out of the state.

"We're outside Wisconsin," he said. "I can tell you it's not a warm place. I wish it was."

Later, Mr. Erpenbach confessed that he and other Democrats were at one point at the Best Western Clock Tower Resort Conference Center & CoCo Key Water Resort in Rockford, Ill., when a reporter showed up. The lawmakers scattered to different locations. "We're just trying to slow things down," he said. Democrats were to meet late Thursday and discuss changes they want in the bill, he said.

Back in Madison, Republican Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, the majority leader, chided his Democratic counterparts. "With the tremendous show of democracy we've seen this week, it's a shame that the Senate Democrats decided not to show up to do their job today."

Mr. Fitzgerald said Republican lawmakers would return to the Capitol Friday morning and continue to try to pass the bill.

The drama disrupted schools across the state, as thousands of teachers called in sick to attend the protests. Public schools were closed in Madison, La Crosse, Racine and Wausau.

Patrick Gasper, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the state's education agency, said he didn't have a statewide tally of closures among the state's 424 school districts, which educate 872,000 students. But he said, "They're all over."

He added that some districts could have to add days at the end of the year to meet state requirements for days and hours of instruction. School officials in Milwaukee said missing work without a valid excuse would "leave teachers open to disciplinary action."

Susan Townsend, 62, a retired teacher in Waupaca, Wis., watched the protests from home. She said she has a $650 a month pension and that doubling her health-care premiums to about $1,600 annually under the governor's plan would strain her ability to help care for three grandchildren. "I'm not angry, I'm disillusioned," she said.

Some union officials said organized labor needs to make the strongest stand possible in Wisconsin, if it hopes to fight off similar attempts to rein in collective-bargaining rights in other states for both public- and private-sector workers, moves that could eventually erode union membership, finances and political clout at a national level.

"This is a big deal," said Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, the nation's biggest union with 3.2 million members. "Plain and simple, this is a politically motivated attack."

Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com and Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com