The number of state troopers - 1,127 - is below the number mandated by the state and the governor has issued layoff notices to 56 of the 57 members of the most recent graduating class. Troopers fear that a wave of retirements might further deplete their ranks.

Connecticut's state employee unions announced that rank-and-file members ratified a labor savings and concessions agreement, giving Gov. Dannel P. Malloy the go-ahead to rescind thousands of layoff notices and forgo additional state budget cuts.

Gov. Cuomo said governors who have attacked collective bargaining and the cost of worker benefits had lost sight of the task at hand - balancing budgets.

Unions representing 35,000 of the state's 47,100 workers notified the Office of the State Employer that they will bargain on wages, benefits and other economic issues as part of a new three-year contract to begin Dec. 31.

The Wisconsin Association of School Boards estimates that about 275 school districts in the state are working outside of collective bargaining agreements and subject to the new legislation. About 150 or so districts are operating under contracts that were extended with their respective unions before the legislation passed.

The ratification was a  victory for Gov. Cuomo, a Democrat whose plan to close the state’s budget gap relied on state employees being willing to stomach a freeze on wages and an increase in the cost of health benefits in return for safeguarding their jobs.

The deal would freeze wages for three years for 66,000 NY state union workers but it also would avoid hundreds of layoffs.

The outcome of the voting is to be announced by next Thursday.

There is intense interest - from voters on the street to national political groups - in the elections sparked by lawmakers' positions on GOP Gov. Scott Walker's law ending most union bargaining for most public workers.

Layoffs continue in CT while union leaders prepare for re-vote; attorney general clears embattled think tank days after college expels it from grounds.

Current legislation on labor unions and collective bargaining is available in a searchable database. You can search all collective bargaining or labor union related bills.

To level the playing field between governmentemployee unions and taxpayers, elimination of dues checkoff and the agency shop are possible steps to take. In fact, these may be more politically palatable, and ultimately more effective, avenues of reform than are restrictions on collective bargaining. Eliminating the public-sector union’s money advantage would let workers retain their right to negotiate with their employers but put them on a level playing field in the political arena. It is the way to restore fairness to the process.

Union affiliation of employed wage and salary workers by state, 2010-2011 annual averages

The issue facing states around the nation is not a traditional private sector dispute between labor and management. It is a question of important public policy and whether states can afford agreements for government employees' salaries and benefits.  The numbers from State Budget Solutions show that the answer is no.

Thanks to union expense reporting requirements and the accessibility of the Internet, we can get a glimpse into the compensation packages of top union officials in Illinois.

One suspects that the vast majority of workers are at least vaguely aware of their right to organize. Nonetheless, the National Labor Relations Board, apparently desperate to drum up business for unions and work for itself, intends to issue new regulations that would force employers to post notices informing workers that they do, indeed, have a right to organize.

A Freedom Foundation of Minnesota review of recently filed campaign finance reports finds that public employee unions in Minnesota have already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 2010 election cycle to support a diverse group of candidates: suburban Democrats, rural Democrats, Twin Cities Democrats, and Iron Range Democrats.

Though unions have been on the decline in nearly every state in the nation, Nebraska's unions are actually growing.

With all that is happening in Wisconsin (and now Ohio and other states) with regard to government workers, some observers are wondering how we arrived to this point.

Why should the Ohio Senate revoke collective bargaining privileges from both state and local government workers, undoing rights created in 1983 by ORC 4117? The existing law starts from the flawed premise that elected officials and their appointees will protect the public interest in bargaining with the unions

There are three important lessons from the Wisconsin collective bargaining battles over the past eighteen months:

1. The power of the government-sector unions and their impact on elections is greatly overestimated. With the November 2012 victory for  Senate Republicans to regain control of the Wisconsin Senate,  government employee union  suffered their sixth  major defeat since March 2011.

2. When given a choice, government employees will quit their union in large numbers.

3. Government employees' salaries and benefits, particularly pensions, are financially unsustainable in most states and collective bargaining reform is needed.

This paper examines the ongoing fiscal crisis caused by health-care plans for retirees (known as "other post-employment benefits," or OPEB) in one of the hardest-hit states, California, and outlines necessary reforms that should come before tax increases or cuts to government services.

Public officials can help alleviate their budget crunches by offering competitive, not exorbitant benefits.

Advocating for collective bargaining reforms because unless base compensation adjustmentst happen, taxes will have to go up.

Ten ideas to cut waste and balance the buget without raising taxes, including more efficient K-12 funding, spending high education tax dollars more wisely and rein in state employee salaries and benefits.

Article presenting the elimination of the Oregon state income tax and the end forced unionism as solutions to both budget problems and lack of business growth.

the Goldwater Institute recommends that Arizona join North Carolina and other states that completely prohibit state and local government officials from contracting with public employee unions, requiring all employment relationships to be individually negotiated.

No area of public policy in Michigan is more in need of fresh thinking than the relationship between government and its employees. With Michigan's recurring government budget struggles, and with a new Legislature and governor espousing a commitment to performance, efficiency and accountability in government, a new labor law for government employees is imperative.

Paper suggesting a variety of ways to fixing state budgets in crisis, including freezing or slowing public employee salary growth, privatizing infrastructure and state operations, eliminating prevailing wage and placing constitutional limits on taxing and spending.