Senate Republicans Block Employee Free Choice Act

Although a majority of Senators voted for the Employee Free Choice Act, Senate Republicans on June 26 blocked the bill designed to make it easier for unions to organize workers at nonunion workplaces.

All 50 Democrats stood behind labor, and among the 49 Republicans, only Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania broke ranks.

The resulting tally, 51 to 48, left the Democratic majority nine votes short of the 60 it needed to cut off debate in the Senate and bring a bill to a vote.

The House passed the bill, 241 to 185, on March 1. That was 43 votes fewer than the two-thirds necessary to override the veto that could have been expected from President Bush.

The bill would have required employers to recognize unions if more than half of eligible workers signed union cards. Under a 60-year-old law, employers who are presented with union cards from a majority of their employees may demand an election by secret ballot, which is designed to prevent coercion of workers by unions.

Giving unions the authority to organize workers on the strength of cards signed by workers, said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass), who sponsored the bill, would merely level a playing field that has been tilted by union organizers' lack of access to workers at the same time that "the employer has access to these individuals all day long."

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