SenFor a
Limited Time receive a
FREE HR Report on the "Top 10 Best Practices in HR Management, 2010”. This comprehensive 50 page report covers Healthcare, Recordkeeping, Hiring, Retention, and other compliance issues.
Download Now
The bill was originally introduced in the House of Representatives, where it was passed in March. Following passage by the House, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduced the bill in the Senate, where it had 46 co-sponsors. Democrats, with the backing of organized labor, were largely in favor of the bill.
Republicans had predicted that they would be able to successfully block the EFCA from coming to a vote. The White House promised to veto the bill if it were passed.
Business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, hailed the vote. "The Senate got it right by blocking action on this absolutely outrageous bill," stated Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the Chamber.
The enactment of the EFCA was labor's primary goal this Congressional session. The bill would have essentially rewritten large portions of federal labor law, and would have represented the first significant changes to the National Labor Relations Act in decades. Perhaps of most concern to employers was the provision of the bill that would have enabled union supporters to organize workers without a secret ballot election, arguably the cornerstone of federal labor law since the NLRA was passed more than 70 years ago.
Organized labor has vowed to make the EFCA an issue in the 2008 election.