Subscribe
The Daily Grind Video
CLOSE

(via AP)

Gov. Scott Walker made clear Monday he won’t back off his proposal to effectively eliminate collective bargaining rights for most public employees. Senate Democrats who fled the state last week to delay the plan vowed not to come back to allow it to pass – even if they have to miss votes on other bills Tuesday. And union leaders said they would not let up on protests that have consumed Wisconsin’s capital city for a week and made the state the center of a national debate over the role of public employees’ unions.

Walker said on ‘Good Morning America’ that there is ‘no room to negotiate’ and rejected a compromise proposal from a Republican state senator.

Protesters who crowded inside the Capitol for a sixth day Sunday had a similar message. They hung a banner in the Capitol reading ‘Wisconsin needs 3 cou(R)ageous Senators,’ referring to the number of Republicans needed to join with Democrats to block the bill.

STORY: 70,000 Descend on Madison To Let The Gov Know He Ain’t No Badger, He’s A Weasel

The protesters have included teachers, who have sometimes arrived in such high numbers that their districts were forced to close due to understaffing. The Madison School District was closed Wednesday through Monday but was expected to reopen Tuesday.

[pagebreak]

Districts in central Wisconsin were also closed Monday, but that was because of 10 to 12 inches of snow. Milwaukee schools were shut down for a pre-scheduled midsemester break. Those closures, on top of Monday being a previously scheduled furlough day for state workers, could elevate the number of protesters who demonstrate in Madison.

A few dozen protesters spent the night inside the Capitol again Sunday, with many of them still huddled inside sleeping bags before 8 a.m. Monday morning. By midmorning the number of protesters, many of them banging on drums, grew to several hundred inside the building. The walls of the normally immaculate Capitol were adorned with signs urging Walker to back down, but he’s shown no willingness to compromise.

<str