Soglin, recalling his experience with public worker strikes -- firefighters back when he was an alderman and bus-driving Teamsters during his first tenure as mayor in the 1970s - says that if union city workers go out, administrative staff and other workers who are cross-trained can pitch in to keep services going.

"Hopefully the city has got intact a modern plan for just such an eventuality," says Soglin. "We had one last time I was mayor. It's basically an emergency plan - -what if we have a flood, what if we have a tornado, what if city workers can't come in."

Cieslewicz says union leaders tell him they don't want to go out on strike. On the front line for nitty-gritty city services - fire protection to garbage pickup - that people depend on, workers want to keep providing service, he says. To pre-empt an erosion of union powers by the Walker legislation, the Madison City Council met in emergency session last week to extend union contracts into 2012.