Wisconsin GOP Does an End-Around to Pass Anti-Collective Bargaining Bill

Now this is some fancy footwork to get this thing passed despite the Democrats running away from their duties as State Senators.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's so-called "budget repair bill" — a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. 

But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, which spends no money, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved the bill a short time later.

The lone Democrat present on the conference committee, Rep. Peter Barca, shouted that the surprise meeting was a violation of the state's open meetings law but Republicans voted over his objections. The Senate convened within minutes and passed the measure without discussion or debate.

In other words they stripped the union rights part from the rest of the bill and voted on it separately.  I'm not sure how it is a violation of the open meetings law because the meeting was actually open but the Democrats were hiding in some other state instead of attending. What it does look like though is that the Wisconsin Senate will probably not get anything done for some time though:

"In 30 minutes, 18 state Senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten," said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller. "Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people. Tomorrow we will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government."

I sill don't understand how collective bargaining is counted as "civil rights" especially if it is just for a small fraction of people who are in public workers unions. I don't see collective bargaining in the Constitution. Also what does "taking back their government mean?" Sounds like incendiary fighting words that are supposed to be squelched after  the Giffords shooting. Hopefully, we won't see some Union nutcase start gunning for the GOP Senators.