Wisconsin workers brace for layoffs

Associated Press

MADISON, Wis.

Thousands of Wisconsin state workers were bracing for layoff notices Friday as Republican Gov. Scott Walker and absent Democrats remained in a standoff over a budget balancing bill that would also strip public workers of their collective bargaining rights.

Walker said he would issue 1,500 layoff notices Friday if at least one of the 14 Senate Democrats doesn’t return from Illinois to give the Republican majority the quorum it needs to vote. Senate Republicans voted Thursday to hold the missing Democrats in contempt and force police to bring them back to the Capitol.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald canceled Friday’s floor session, saying in a statement that Republican senators want time to allow law enforcement to adjust their staffing levels and “help the Capitol to return to something of a sense of normalcy.”

The budget balancing legislation has led to nearly three weeks of protests — some attended by tens of thousands of union supporters — in and around the state Capitol, which was completely cleared of demonstrators late Thursday for the first time in 17 nights after a judge ordered the building closed during non-business hours.

The final 50 or so protesters left peacefully about two hours after the judge’s order, which also said the state unconstitutionally limited access to the building since Monday and ordered the state to grant greater access to the public by next Monday.

“We decided it would be best for our image to leave tonight peacefully and come back tomorrow,” said Matt Rowe, 21, of Madison, carrying an armful of blankets after he left the building.

The protesters’ dramatic departure capped a day full of developments, including Walker’s threat of massive layoffs he said would be needed to make up for savings not being realized in the stalled bill.