CNN 2011-02-22

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Now for protests in our own country. Protests over deep budget cuts may be coming to a state capital near you. Center stage for the drama right now, Wisconsin.

State capital on Thursday was jam-packed with these protesters. We're likely going to see more of this today. State workers, a lot of them teachers, furious over Governor Scott Walker's plans to cut their benefits and collective bargaining rights. They claim his budget repair bill is really a union buster. Walker says Wisconsin's budget is broken and some tough choices have to be made. A lot of schools are closed again today. And teachers say they are not budging¹ until they can get some answers that they can live with. CNN talked with the head of the teachers union just a little while ago.

Taking away bargaining rights is a nonstarter. We have reached out time and time and time again since November 3rd, since the day after the election his people have refused to return a single call. They have never even acknowledged the unions except to give us notices of termination of contract extensions. They don't want to come to the table and bargain.

CNN's Casey Wian is actually in Madison right now. And you know, Casey, this is the kind of loud passion that you usually see from Packer fans at Lambeau Field.

Absolutely. Over the last few days, there have been a lot of angry voices here. In fact, some of those teachers and other sympathizers, 500 or so of them, spent the night behind me inside the state capital on the floor. We're expecting thousands more folks to show up later today to protest these proposed cuts. Teachers say they are angry about the proposal that would require them to pay more for their health and pension benefits and would severely² limit their collective bargaining rights. We talked to one counter-protester who is definitely not sympathetic to their cause.

"Shame on you for abandoning our children today. At least there's a few teachers out there who have the guts³ to stand up against you union thugs and actually teach our children. Yep, you're AWOL. You're AWOL. You're AWOL. I have a right to be here. "

In his words, those teachers will continue to be AWOL today. Schools in many parts of the state are closed because of these protests. And I have to tell you that the protesters are very encouraged by the fact that state Democratic lawmakers have left the state to deprive the state legislature of the quorum⁴ it needs to move this legislation forward.

So, right now, the legislative⁵ process, Kyra, is at a standstill but we're expecting a lot of loud voices here at the capital later today to protest this proposal.

Now, Casey -- Casey, many of these protesters are arguing this is just a temporary solution even if these cuts go into effect, it's not going to be enough in the end.

They seem to be convinced that this is an effort to just limit the power of unions. In fact, many of the union leaders have said publicly -- and it's remarkable⁶ to hear this -- that the governor is going to get his money. They are willing to give concessions⁷, financial concessions, but what they don't want is an end to their hard won collective bargaining rights that are very generous compared to what public sector⁸ -- public union workers enjoy in other states. They don't want to give those up. They say that this is not necessarily about money. There are other ways to cut this budget deficit⁹ but they don't want their collective bargaining rights to be taken away from them.