Employee Free Choice Act Abandoned Despite Democratic Supermajority, Corporate Lobbying Victory

Senator Arlen Specter announces on March 24, 2009, that he will not support the Employee Free Choice Act, effectively killing labor’s top legislative priority despite Democratic control of the presidency and both houses of Congress. EFCA would have allowed workers to form unions through “card check” majority sign-up, increased penalties for employer violations, and required binding arbitration when employers refuse to negotiate first contracts. Business groups spend an estimated $400 million opposing the bill, reprising the corporate lobbying blitz that defeated the Labor Law Reform Act in 1978.

The Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable deploy the same playbook that worked three decades earlier: coordinate corporate lobbying, generate grassroots opposition from small businesses, and target moderate Democrats in swing states. Corporations warn of job losses and describe card check as eliminating “secret ballots,” ignoring that the existing NLRB election system subjects workers to months of employer intimidation before voting. Business groups prove they can still block labor-friendly legislation even when Democrats hold 60 Senate seats.

Obama, who campaigned on supporting EFCA, never expends political capital fighting for it, prioritizing healthcare and economic stimulus while letting the bill die quietly. The defeat represents labor’s second major legislative failure under favorable political conditions, following 1978’s loss. Unlike 1978, when labor’s political position appeared salvageable, the 2009 failure comes after three decades of declining union density (now below 8 percent in the private sector) and weakened political influence. The EFCA’s death demonstrates that the corporate political infrastructure built since the Powell Memo has become so dominant that even a financial crisis caused by Wall Street cannot generate enough political space for modest labor law reforms. Union density continues declining after 2009, falling to 6 percent in the private sector by 2022.