Wisconsin union leaders ask Gov. Walker for meeting

MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin State Employees Union is asking state lawmakers to put pressure on Gov. Scott Walker’s administration to negotiate with the union over salary increases.

The union sent letters to lawmakers on Wednesday to follow up on its request made to Walker’s administration on Aug. 18.

Under the new collective bargaining law passed this year, public employees retain the right to bargain over wage increases no greater than the rate of inflation. They lost the right to bargain over anything else.

The union’s director Marty Beil says in the letter that not negotiating with them would be a “willful disregard for the law.”

A spokesman for Walker had no immediate comment.