Update - Employee Free Choice Act Defeated

Last week, the United States Senate blocked the Employee Free Choice Act ("EFCA") from moving forward. As I had mentioned in my article entitled Holy Unionization, Batman! It's The Employee Free Choice Act, EFCA would have, inter alia, eliminated secret ballot elections in cases of union organizing efforts and required employers to recognize a union if a majority of workers in the bargaining unit signed an authorization card. In an ironic twist, the element of "employee free choice" would likely have been disregarded in favor of a system where threats, duress, harassment and intimidation of workers in signing such cards may have been the rule rather than the exception. Is it any wonder then that only about 12% of workers choose union representation when given the anonymity and relative safety of the secret ballot election process?

I'm fairly certain that proponents of EFCA will attempt to introduce the bill in the future. For now, employers can take a deep breath ... or can they?