MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker unveiled a budget that makes deep cuts in spending on Tuesday, and he said the cuts could be even worse if Democrats continue to block his plan to curb the power of public sector unions.

Walker, whose proposal to restrict collective bargaining sparked huge protests and a nationwide debate, said his budget would reduce state spending by 6.7 percent and slash more than 21,000 state jobs.

He said the cuts would reduce the state's structural budget deficit by 90 percent to $250 million by the end of fiscal 2013, the lowest in recent history.

The reception Walker received from lawmakers was welcoming despite the rancorous debate raging in the Capitol for the last two weeks. Protesters were not allowed in the chamber.

Democratic state senators fled Wisconsin nearly two weeks ago to avoid voting on the measure to curtail collective bargaining for most government workers. The Democratic gambit has stalled the proposal but not killed it.

Representatives for the 14 Democratic senators who decamped to neighboring Illinois met with Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Monday but they did not return for the budget address.

"If the 14 Senate Democrats do not come home, their local communities will be forced to manage these reductions in aid without the benefit of the tools provided in the repair bill," Walker told a joint session of the legislature.

But one of those boycotting Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, blasted the governor, saying the cuts would be devastating.

"The Governor's budget bill is quite simply balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class and working families; seniors, people with disabilities, children and small businesses," he said.

What began as a dispute in Wisconsin between a Republican governor and state labor unions has grown into what could be the biggest confrontation with organized labor since President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

President Barack Obama weighed in on behalf of the unions and Republican leaders have told him to butt out. Unions have been reliable supporters of Democrats for decades.

While only seven percent of private sector workers are unionized in the United States, more than a third of the public sector is unionized and nearly half in Wisconsin.

Outside the Capitol, protesters chanted "Hey, Hey, ho, ho, Scott Walker has got to go" during the speech, and this could be heard inside the chamber, although it did not drown out the governor's speech.

One fear of unions is that if Wisconsin approves restrictions, other states will follow and deal a serious blow to remaining union power.

In Ohio, the Republican-dominated legislature on Tuesday considered a bill like the one in Wisconsin to curtail some collective bargaining rights for public sector workers and eliminate their right to strike.

Supporters of the measure said it was needed to close the state's $8 billion two-year budget deficit, which Republicans blame on excessive promises to unionized workers.

"This isn't about deficits. This is about union-busting," said Evan Goodenow, 46, an unemployed man who was among some 8,000 protesters at the Capitol, in Columbus.

A group of 40 Democratic lawmakers in Indiana who adopted the tactic of leaving the state like their colleagues in Wisconsin, showed no inclination to return on Tuesday. They object to bills introduced by Republicans in Indiana that would give parents vouchers for private schools and restrict collective bargaining for state employees.

(Additional reporting by Karen Pierog, and James Kelleher; Writing by Andrew Stern and James Kelleher; Editing by Greg McCune)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) – More than 8,000 protesters converged on Ohio's state capital on Tuesday as state lawmakers considered a bill similar to one proposed in Wisconsin to curtail the power of public sector unions.

Republican supporters of the Ohio proposal said the limits to public workers' ability to bargain are necessary to give local governments flexibility and help reduce the state's two-year budget deficit of about $8 billion.

"In terms of people protesting, more power to them, this is democracy," said State Sen. Kevin Bacon, the Republican chair of the senate's Insurance, Commerce and Labor committee, which received a revised version of the bill Tuesday. But Bacon said "how much noise" people make isn't the issue.

Labor unions and Democrats have protested that the bill goes too far in sacrificing public workers' rights.

One unemployed protester, Evan Goodenow, 46, from Bellevue, Ohio, said he was raised by a single mother who was a union meter maid. "She would be rolling over in her grave if she knew what was going on now."

"This isn't about deficits. This is about union-busting," he said.

Bacon presided over a committee hearing Tuesday that introduced about 100 pages of amendments to the bill, and took less than 30 minutes. Democrats protested that they needed more time to review the amendments, and the hearing was adjourned until Wednesday morning. The full Senate may vote on the bill this week.

The amended bill is softened from its original form, which would have prohibited collective bargaining for 42,000 state workers in addition to 19,500 workers in the state's university and college system. This would have gone even further than the controversial collective bargaining bill being debated in Wisconsin and end a right established in 1983 for Ohio's public-sector workers.

For local governments that bargain with unions representing some 300,000 workers including police, firefighters, and public school teachers, the bill removes health care and some other benefits from the negotiating process.

The amended bill would restore collective bargaining power for public employees on wages, but also prohibit striking for any public employee on the state and local level.

Senate Republican spokesman Jason Mauk said the changes bring the bill more in line with the views of Republican Gov. John Kasich, who wanted to preserve some collective bargaining but did not want to allow strikes.

Wisconsin is in its third week of protests over its proposed collective bargaining bill. Republicans there have offered no compromises on the bill.

Like Wisconsin, Ohio has a new Republican governor and Republican majorities in both legislative houses. Democratic senators in Wisconsin have left the state to prevent Republicans from having a quorum, thus delaying a vote on the collective bargaining bill.

But Ohio only requires a simple majority to vote on bills, so it would do Ohio Democrats no good to leave the state.

"They'd be happy if we did because then they wouldn't have to listen to us," said Democratic State Sen. Joe Schiavoni, the labor committee's ranking minority member. He planned to meet with Bacon Tuesday evening and go over the amendments "with a fine-toothed comb" before the committee hearing Wednesday. "We're going to have plenty of questions tomorrow."

One of the Columbus protesters, Ann Furek, 50, of Dresden, a retired public school teacher, said she had voted Republican in the past but voted against Kasich, adding that Republicans she knows who felt Kasich would be pro-education are "disappointed."

(Editing by Jerry Norton and Greg McCune)

CAMP VERDE, Ariz (Reuters) – An Arizona jury on Tuesday heard how participants in a sweat lodge became delirious and passed out in scorching heat at a seminar hosted by self-help guru James Arthur Ray where three people died of heat-related causes.

Ray is charged with three counts of manslaughter in the deaths of three participants in his October 2009 personal growth seminar, near scenic Sedona, Arizona, a popular destination for New Age retreats.

The 56 participants in Ray's "spiritual warrior" retreat were crammed into a four-foot tall sweat lodge, packed with superheated rocks.

In an opening statement for the prosecution, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk said instead of finding "enlightenment," the three participants "found death" at the five-day retreat, for which they paid nearly $10,000 each.

Polk played an audio tape made at the retreat, where Ray warned participants they should expect "the most intense heat" they had ever experienced.

"You will feel as if you are going to die. I guarantee that," he said in the recording. "... You will have to get to a point where you surrender, where it's OK to die."

Polk said the jury would hear testimony about one sweat lodge participant who screamed he was having a heart attack, and passed out as he tried to crawl outside for fresh air.

Other participants were in distress, vomiting or delirious during the sauna-like cleansing, Polk said. One man slipped and burned himself on hot rocks, which left his arm with "chunks of flesh falling off," the prosecutor said.

"Despite of all this chaos, Mr. Ray did not stop the ceremony," Polk said. "Mr. Ray continued to bring in more superheated rocks, more water and more ... steam."

"A TRAGIC ACCIDENT"

Luis Li, an attorney for the California-based motivational speaker on trial, in opening arguments said participants were sent waivers months before joining the ceremony at the Angel Valley Retreat Center, so they knew what the seminar involved.

"I am here to say they died as a result of a tragic accident, not a crime," he told jurors.

The attorney added that participants were "all adults," and could make decisions for themselves.

"They were doctors, dentists, regular folks," Li said. "Nobody was coerced."

On the day in question, 21 participants in the seminar were taken for treatment to nearby hospitals, where James Shore, 40, and Kirby Brown, 38, were pronounced dead. Liz Neuman, 49, died several days later in hospital.

Television news images of the sweat dome showed a windowless structure, covered in black roofing material.

Sweat or medicine lodges -- smaller domed or oblong structures warmed with heated stones -- have traditionally been used in ceremonies by some Native American cultures.

Li said doctors initially reported that they suspected toxins from treated wood involved in construction of the dome could have been involved, and accused the prosecution of failing to pursue the possibility.

The trial continues this week and is expected to last three to four months.

(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Greg McCune)