Wisconsin sends national signal

As governments from Albany to Athens struggle with the cost of public employee pensions and benefits, events in Wisconsin offer a vivid illustration of just how bad things can get.

A new Republican governor in this traditionally progressive state proposes not just that civil servants pay more for pension and health benefits, but that bargaining rights be sharply curtailed for the workers' unions.

Voting with their feet, state Senate Democrats decamped to Illinois to deprive the Republican majority of a quorum, preventing a vote on the legislation.

What's happening in Madison is a cautionary tale for other states with deficits - and for governors determined to roll back the power of public-employee unions.

Unions have an important role in protecting worker rights and wresting a healthy share of society's gains for employees. But unions of government workers aren't negotiating against capitalists. When they win better pensions and benefits than taxpayers enjoy, often by influencing the polticians with whom they negotiate, those gains come at the expense of everyone else. And voters are losing patience.

Wisconsin offers a lesson in the costs of intransigence. Let's hope unions and politicians in New York learn it, and don't start acting like cheeseheads.