Highlights: President Gerard interview with In These Times; Perspective: Will Union Fight be the Democrats’ Waterloo?; Indiana Legislature to begin budget debate today; Kasich receives boos as others wonder if his approach helping President Obama’s chances in 2012; WI judge blocks anti-union bill from taking effect while rancor heats up over Supreme Court seat; Full Scrooge Alert here http://dailyscroogealert.blogspot.com/

All Around

‘People Are Pissed Off’: An Interview With Leo Gerard After attending protests in Madison, Wis., the United Steelworkers union president talks strategy.

RealClearPolitics - Will Union Fight be the Democrats' Waterloo?
By Jack Kelly, Pittsburgh PG
A Rasmussen poll March 8 indicated likely voters in Wisconsin opposed weakening collective bargaining rights, 57 percent to 39 percent. But the same poll showed support for Mr. Walker on specific provisions

Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, the battle is 'far from over'
USA Today
Mary Lazich's district, admires her for voting in favor of legislation that ended limited collective bargaining for most public employees. By Darren Hauck, for USA TODAY Allen Schneidewent, left, owner of Rockhead's Comic and Games in Kenosha, Wis

WI: Judge temporarily blocks implementation of public union law
Public employees won a reprieve Friday as a judge issued a temporary restraining order to halt Gov. Scott Walker's law to sharply limit collective bargaining for government employees.

Wisconsin's Controversial Collective Bargaining Stripping Law in Limbo - For Now
Fox News
A Wisconsin judge is blocking Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's controversial law on collective bargaining, blocking it from being published, meaning it cannot take effect. Dane County's district attorney asked the judge to block the bill, arguing that

Don't fall for the GOP's scams
Carroll County Times
Zirpoli stated tea party activists failed to support Wisconsin public workers when Republican Gov. Scott Walker removed their collective bargaining rights. He noted the budget crisis in Wisconsin was invented by Walker as a pretext to remove collective

WI: Supreme Court tensions boil over
As the deeply divided state Supreme Court wrestled over whether to force one member off criminal cases last year, Justice David Prosser exploded at Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson behind closed doors, calling her a "bitch" and threatening to "destroy" her.

Ohio

With Kasich, SB5 Turning Ohioans Off, Talk of Revising the Bill Amplifies. Will This All Help Obama?

Bedford: SB 5 debate about more than party lines
WKYC-TV
... against Ohio Senate Bill 5. A showdown is looming in Columbus over the controversial bill, which would weaken and limit collective bargaining for unions representing about 350000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public workers

Ohio Dems see momentum returning
Bizjournals.com
The combination of recent polling data and the outpouring of anger with Ohio's collective bargaining legislation has the state Democratic Party feeling revived and confident for the first time since the 2010 election struck devastating blows to its

Ohio Governor Gets 3,000 Boos Ohio Republicans are pushing through an agenda attacking union rights and cutting government services in a state mired in deep recession—but not before unions, students, and community groups bring the fight to every corner of the state.

Senate Bill 5 rally to take place on the UT campus The bill, which is mostly backed by the GOP and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, would prohibit strikes and benefit negotiations for police, firefighters

Michigan

What's happening in Mich. is not 'shared sacrifice'
Livingston Daily
Because, though Texas is a "right to work" state and is billions of dollars more in debt than Michigan, he believes somehow unions are at fault, even though states with unions have higher wages and therefore a higher-paid middle class that can pay more

GOP lawmakers seek labor reform in Michigan - Yahoo! News
Backers of the right to work effort see it as one of the key ways to bring jobs back to Michigan. For years, Michigan has had one of the highest

Indiana

Indiana Senate to begin budget deliberations Monday
Louisville Courier-Journal
Tuesday: Presentation by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett on several education issues, including funding, vouchers and charter schools, and collective bargaining for teachers. One hour of public testimony; meeting is at 4 pm

It's time to move forward at Indiana Statehouse
Journal and Courier
As we have stated on a number of occasions, right-to-work issues never came up in any discussion the Journal & Courier editorial board had with candidates in the 2010 election. The issue came out of left field -- and landed like an incendiary device

Opting out lends Dem Minority Leader Bauer his leverage
Evansville Courier & Press
When Democrats cited the so-called "right to work" bill, which unions say would have crippled their finances, Bosma said that legislation is dead in his chamber. As Democrats' reasons shifted to measures such as a private school voucher program and

Pennsylvania

Letter: 'Right-to-work' a wrong idea
... during attack Authorities say a Pennsylvania driver rammed into another car three times, ... I want to share "Letter: 'Right-to-work' a wrong idea" via

New Hampshire

Workers disenfranchised
Concord Monitor
If you ever thought that rights contained in collective bargaining agreements were for the individual employee, you were wrong. Public employee rights under collective bargaining agreements in New Hampshire have been stripped away and given exclusively

Right to Work bill would only hurt N.H. workers
The so-called Right to Work bill currently working its way through the New Hampshire Legislature isn't what it seems! The corporate interests behind this ..

Virginia

VA: Union-free Virginia not spared state pension woes
Where Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) wants to take his state, Virginia has already been: It is one of a handful of states that prohibit collective bargaining for public employees in state and local government. Given that, you'd think the state's retirement program would look a lot like those offered by private employers, right? You'd be wrong.