Some 28-thousand state employees are on strike today. Talks between the state and its two largest employee unions broke down Saturday over wages and healthcare coverage. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, or MAPE, are walking picket lines all round the state. Union officials toured Minnesota today, warning members they should be prepared for the long haul. The state employees strike includes a couple dozen workers at a state veterans home in Luverne, in southwest Minnesota. National Guard troops are filling in for the strikers. On the first day of the work stoppage, world events were as much an issue as labor disagreements. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports: