COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) – Ohio joined Wisconsin on Wednesday in advancing a plan to restrict public sector unions, posing a new threat to labor union power in one of the most politically and economically important states.

The Republican-controlled Ohio state senate approved a proposal to curb the collective bargaining rights of public employees and forbid government workers from going on strike.

The vote followed the Wisconsin Assembly's approval last week of a similar proposal, which has sparked mass protests and a national debate over labor relations.

In both states, the plans still must be passed by a second chamber of the legislature and signed by the states' governors. Republicans, who have been pushing the anti-union proposals, hold the governorships and legislative majorities in both Wisconsin and Ohio.

If enacted, Ohio would become the biggest U.S. state so far to impose sweeping restrictions on public sector unions.

What began three weeks ago as a dispute between Wisconsin's newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker and state unions has blown up into possibly the biggest challenge to the labor movement since President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

Republicans say the moves are needed to rescue recession-battered state budgets from debt, but Democrats and union supporters say the proposals are an attack on organized labor that could linger into the 2012 elections.

While Wisconsin has gained more national attention, Ohio is far more important to the union movement. It has the sixth largest number of public sector union members among all U.S. states, twice the number of Wisconsin.

The Ohio proposal was narrowly approved on a Senate vote of 17 to 16, with six majority Republicans joining Democrats to vote against it.

"SHAME ON YOU"

After the vote, workers listening to the proceedings outside the Ohio Senate chambers shouted "Shame on you" and "We'll remember this."

Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich hailed the Senate vote and said it would help local governments get the economy back on track. "This is a major step forward in correcting the imbalance between taxpayers and the government unions that work for them," Kasich said.

More than 8,000 protesters converged on Ohio's capital on Tuesday to demonstrate against the proposal, which would affect workers including public school teachers, firefighters and police.

In Wisconsin, the curbs on public unions that passed the Assembly last week exempted police and firefighters.

At a news conference in Columbus with Ohio Democrats, representatives of fire and police unions complained the Ohio bill would take away their ability to bargain for safety equipment, such as bullet-proof vests.

"This bill provides for our safety to be contracted out to the lowest bidder," said Jay McDonald of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police.

The Ohio house will debate the bill next week.

The Wisconsin proposal has been hung up in a stalemate between Walker and Senate Democrats, who fled the state on February 17 to prevent a quorum and block a vote.

The Wisconsin state Senate on Wednesday approved a resolution to fine the missing Democrats $100 a day for boycotting the vote, hoping to pressure the runaways into returning.

Walker, who proposed a two-year budget on Tuesday with deep spending and job cuts, said he was willing to compromise with Democrats on his budget plan but did not offer to negotiate on the union restrictions.

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

Several other states also are considering measures affecting public sector unions, including Indiana, Tennessee, Idaho and Kansas.

But the Indiana state assembly has also stalled on a measure aimed at unions after most of its 40 Democrats left the state for neighboring Illinois, depriving Republicans of the quorum needed to pass bills.

(Additional reporting by David Bailey. Writing by Greg McCune. Editing by John Whitesides and Peter Bohan)

SEATTLE (Reuters) – A U.S. Army soldier was sentenced to 60 days of hard labor and a discharge on Wednesday after a military judge found him guilty of serious misconduct, including desecrating a corpse, beating up a fellow soldier and smoking hashish while deployed in Afghanistan.

Army specialist Corey Moore, 22, was one of a dozen 5th Stryker Brigade soldiers charged with misconduct in connection with what has become the most serious prosecution of alleged atrocities by U.S. military in Afghanistan since the war there began in late 2001.

Moore was found guilty by U.S. Army Judge Lieutenant Colonel Kwasi Hawks of stabbing a corpse and beating up Private Justin Stoner, an alleged whistle-blower who threatened to reveal the platoon's drug use.

Moore, of Redondo Beach, California, is one of seven Stryker Brigade soldiers charged with lesser crimes. Five others face murder charges in upcoming court-martial hearings.

Hawks, at Washington state's Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, ruled that after the hard labor Moore will be discharged because of bad conduct but not jailed.

He forfeits no pay and his rank is not reduced, Army spokeswoman Kathleen Turner said.

Hawks convicted Moore of unlawfully striking another U.S. soldier, conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline, and wrongfully using a Schedule 1 controlled-substance.

The judge found Moore innocent of conspiracy to commit assault and battery against Stoner and of impeding an investigation.

The Stryker Brigade cases have gained notoriety because dozens of photos, including 15 to 20 deemed by Army prosecutors to be highly sensitive because they could potentially inflame public sentiment in Afghanistan against U.S. soldiers, remain sealed from public view.

A video showed Moore stabbing a corpse, according to court documents.

Moore is the fifth soldier to be sentenced in the case.

In a related case, the court-martial of a key suspect, 22-year-old Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, was postponed on Wednesday due to a death in his defense attorney's family.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Peter Bohan)

COALINGA, California (Reuters) – The man serving a life sentence for the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy was denied parole for a 13th time on Wednesday, California corrections officials said.

Sirhan Sirhan's latest bid for freedom was rejected after a hearing before the Board of Parole Hearings at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California, where he is being held.

Sirhan, 66, will be eligible for another parole review in five years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.

The board did not immediately say why it denied Sirhan parole.

His lawyer, William Pepper, said that Sirhan was innocent of the assassination and has been treated unfairly.

"From what we've seen this afternoon, we're very disappointed and we're very hurt for a man whose been spending time confined when he met every one of the criteria for suitability to be released," Pepper said.

"They ignored everything we had to say and went on the emotional kick of losing a presidential candidate and loss of a national leader," he said.

Sirhan was wrestled to the ground with a gun in his hand after Kennedy was shot to death on June 4, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, the night he won the California Democratic presidential primary.

Sirhan, who moved to the United States with his family as a child, was initially sentenced to death for the assassination of the senator, brother to slain President John F. Kennedy.

That sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972, after the California Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional.

It was Sirhan's 14th appearance before a parole board, but it was the 13th time that he was eligible for release on parole and was denied, said Doug Roberts, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

At a 2003 hearing where he was also denied parole, a state Board of Prison Terms panel found Sirhan's anger and ability to cope had worsened, and that he would pose a risk to society if released. He was denied parole again in 2006.

Pepper, has suggested that Sirhan was brainwashed to target Kennedy, telling ABC News in an interview earlier this week: "There is no question he was hypno-programed."

At his trial, Sirhan declared that he killed Kennedy "with 20 years of malice aforethought."

The Palestinian-born Sirhan's motive was said to have been anger about U.S. policy in the Middle East.

(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan Whitcomb. Editing by Peter Bohan)