E-mails released by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's office show the Republican has told Senate Democrats he is open to compromise on aspects of his plan to end most collective bargaining rights for public employees.Walker has been under pressure from Republicans urging him to abandon his sinking ship. Walker's approval ratings are slipping and Republican senators are looking at recall votes.
Walker sent Democrats a list of possible proposed changes as recently as Sunday night. He says he'd be open to allowing bargaining on salary without any limit. Under his current proposal, workers would only be able to negotiate a new salary increase no greater than inflation.
He lists other possible areas that could be subject to collective bargaining, including mandatory overtime, performance bonuses and hazardous duty pay.
dane101 offers some insight:
The potential compromises listed in the article are possibly the result of two meetings that were detailed today in a statement released by Senator Bob Jauch. Based on the MJS report that these were "put together on Sunday evening" it is unclear if they were delivered to the Wisconsin Democrats before the Governor, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, and Senate Leader Scott Fitzgerald held a contentious press conference on Monday.
The end result of that press conference was a deeper rift between the Walker Administration and the 14 Wisconsin Senators. According to the statement by Jauch: "Yesterday Governor Walker said that he had been working day and night to find a solution to the issue. The fact is that he has held more press conferences blasting Democrats than there have been meetings. It took his Administration 18 days before a request was made for a meeting."
