Unions Promise to Work with Obama on Card Check

In congratulating him on his inauguration Tuesday, one of the key labor coalitions behind President Barack Obama’s victorious campaign last year has promised to work with him on its number one legislative priority: the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

“Our seven unions and six million members will work with the Obama-Biden administration and new Congress to establish a bold agenda to fix our national health care system, invest in green projects and technologies to help create millions of new, good green jobs, and put working families back on the path of prosperity by passing the Employee Free Choice Act,” said Anna Burger, chair of Change to Win.

EFCA, often called card-check, should help workers organize into unions much more easily by letting them sign authorization cards instead of holding secret ballot elections to form unions. Business associations have targeted the bill and are lobbying furiously against it. Union officials contend the legislation is necessary because too often employers have intimidated workers from forming unions.