Minn. Bills To Curtail Public Worker Pay Get Look

ST. PAUL (AP) - A state Senate committee has approved a bill that would prohibit public schoolteachers from striking.

The Senate State Government and Innovation Committee passed the bill Monday on a party-line vote. Republican supporters say that limiting contract negotiations between administrators and teachers to summer breaks, and prohibiting strikes, will benefit students who are easily distracted by labor unrest in school districts.

Democratic critics of the bill say it's an attack on teachers and point out there's only been three teacher strikes in Minnesota since 1995.

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton criticized several GOP-backed state worker pay and benefit curtailments as too similar to the controversial moves in Wisconsin to remove state worker bargaining rights and trim pay and benefits.

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