House backs bill to ease unionizing

Organized labor scored a major victory yesterday as House members voted in favor of a measure to make it easier for workers to join unions.

The House voted 241-185 for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers to unionize by simply signing a card or petition stating their interest in joining a union, as opposed to the long-standing practice of secret-ballot elections.

Two Democrats voted against the bill, with 13 Republicans supporting it.

“This is the most important labor-law reform legislation of this generation,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat.

But the bill faces a tough challenge in the Senate, where Democrats have only a slight majority.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, vowed to fight the bill.

“We will not allow the progress already made on behalf of U.S. workers to be undone, nor will we allow coercion by employers or unions,” Mr. McConnell said.

The Bush administration also has vowed to veto the bill.

The pending legislation has pitted labor activists and union foes in a fierce lobbying and public-relations campaign the past few months.

Organized labor says the bill is crucial for helping defend itself from anti-union employers and lawmakers.

Opponents say the pending law is nothing more than political payback by Democrats to the unions, which significantly supported the party during the 2006 congressional elections.

Supporters of the bill say the card-signing — or “card-check” — method is more fair than holding a secret-ballot election because it’s a simpler, more-direct approach for workers to decide if they want to unionize.

And because card-check organizing is considerably quicker than conducting secret-ballot elections, which typically take weeks or longer, proponents say it reduces the potential for employers to harass and intimidate workers against joining a union.

“Today, when workers want to form a union, their employers can force them to undergo a National Labor Relations Board election process, and that process is broken because it allows irresponsible employers to harass, coerce, intimidate, reassign and even fire workers who support a union,” said Rep. George Miller, California Democrat and the bill’s main sponsor.

Unions have helped make the United States “the most prosperous, most productive nation in the world, with a vibrant middle class,” Mr. Miller added.

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