The historic election of Senator Barack Obama as the next President of the United States, coupled with the Democratic Party increasing its majority in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, greatly increases the chances of passage of legislation making it much easier for unions to organize employers in the U.S.

Organized labor has publicly stated that its top priority in the 111th Congress, which begins in January 2009, is passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). President-elect Obama was an original co-sponsor of the bill when it was introduced in 2007 but the bill stalled in the Senate under threat of a fi libuster or a veto by President Bush. When he accepted the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union during the campaign, President-elect Obama vowed that, if elected, he would pass the EFCA, stating, “We will pass the Employee Free Choice Act. We may have to wait for the next President to sign it, but we will get this thing done.” President-elect Obama has also pledged to assist organized labor by ushering in a union-friendly administration.

The EFCA, if enacted in its current form, would result in the most sweeping changes to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) since the original Wagner Act was passed in 1935. It would amend the NLRA to: (1) require the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to certify a labor union as the exclusive bargaining representative of employees through union authorization cards signed by employees, without the benefi t of a government-supervised, secret-ballot election; (2) require mandatory interest arbitration if an employer and a newly certifi ed union are unable to reach a fi rst contract within a relatively short period of time; and (3) expand the NLRB’s remedial power for employer unfair labor practices during union organizing campaigns and during bargaining, including the authority to award civil penalties.


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