Unions are fighting the practice known as “double-breasting,” when contractors set up a separate non-union company to get around collectively bargained obligations.

Eliminating tenure in state law, as Walker proposed in January and a Republican-controlled legislative committee approved earlier this month, is part of a larger overhaul of higher education policy.

Whether mingling on small-town streets, giving radio interviews or appearing at union hall rallies, Wisconsin candidate Mary Burke speaks in measured tones, saying little that stirs the old partisan passions.

Walker touted his record of increasing spending for worker training by more than $100 million in his latest television ad, which featured five people saying they recently got jobs.

The Harris v. Quinn decision will be felt in Minnesota, where two labor groups are working to organize both home care workers and in-home day care workers through a union election.

With newly installed Republican majorities in the House and Senate, K-12 education reform became the subject of intense debate this year, a struggle that began in the regular session and continued until just hours before the Legislature convened to pass the package of budget bills that ended the shutdown in July.

As the Republicans and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton persist in a stalemate that could result in a government shutdown, Minnesota Chamber of Commerce President David Olson said he’s not getting pushback from his members on the Legislature’s central budget choice: to hold the line on tax increases.

UW-Madison lobbyist Don Nelson said Friday that talks were proceeding with state lawmakers over what new flexibilities the Madison campus can be given to control its budget, set tuition and make other decisions. But he said Walker's proposal that the campus endorsed to create a separate public authority is no longer an option.

Many Republican candidates from greater Minnesota have hammered constantly on what they called school funding inequities that favored districts in the Twin Cities metro area. But Democrats and urban school advocates are outraged.

Dogged by allegations of politically motivated cuts - and beset by criticisms and questions about some of its funding mechanisms - the House State Government Finance bill has become a controversial and complex affair.