The Real Deal in Madison - it was that last-gasp attempt to make themselves invulnerable to public accountability that really was the last straw and that convinced Wisconsinites and their representatives that the cozy relations between government unions and legislators had gone too far and needed to be stopped, even if that meant “breaking” the unions.

◼ The Real Deal in Madison - theothermccain

Democrats, after losing the November election, called a special lame-duck session in an abortive effort to lock in sweetheart deals for government employee unions. When that didn’t work, Democrats have since tried to prevent Republicans from acting to balance the budget

◼ Some Recent Historical Context for Wisconsin-Union Dispute
[UPDATED] - piece of work in progress

A lame-duck special session is a rarity in Wisconsin state politics, having been called only once before in the past 40 years. Those very same Democratic Senators who have fled Wisconsin so as to prevent a voting quorum were part of this scheme, and the idea was to take advantage of the absence of any Republican State Senators who had left on vacation to ram through the new deals with 17 different unions, including language that would effectively eliminate oversight of state regulatory agencies and give them full control of workplace policies without having to get government permission....

Dave Hansen, the outgoing Dem majority leader, made the principled decision that the voters of the state had elected a new slate of legislators to deal with budget matters, and all of the contracts but one (for child-care providers) went down by identical 16-16 votes.

It was widely believed that all of those contracts would be approved in Special Session, but Republican lawmakers showed up to do their jobs. Whether Nancy Pelosi was proud of them or not is not recorded.

◼ The Morning Scramble – The People versus The Public Unions edition - norunnyeggs (lots of links here)
◼ Scott Walker vs. Public Sector Unions