Last night Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the state’s senate Republicans finally (after three weeks of passionate protests and political wrangling) pushed through the legislation that stripped most of the state unions of nearly all their collective bargaining rights.

The “Budget Repair Bill”, is (among other things) an effort to manage the state’s huge deficit by giving government offices more power to destroy deal with unions. The state’s 14 Dems had fled Wisconsin to delay the vote, but wily Walker found a loophole that allowed the state Repubs to pass the bill without reaching the normally required quorum by taking out certain financial provisions.

Bringing this message home to San Francisco, the Muni workers union are suing the city because Proposition G has a little nugget inside of it that allows MTA managers to undercut its workers collective bargaining rights. According to the Chron, “The unions are taking aim at a portion of Prop. G that says should the operators and management reach impasse at the bargaining table, resolution of the dispute will fall to an independent arbitrator who must take into account a proposed contract’s impact on fares and service.”

For more, go here.

• Tag: MTA, MUNI, unions, Wisconsin