Pro-union bill may lack support

WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- Unions, which have had declining membership in the United States, could stage a strong comeback with the Employee Free Choice Act, union leaders say.

While Congress has been in recess for the past two weeks, unions have stepped up an advertising campaign pushing for the bill that would allow workers to form unions if a majority sign a card of support, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Workers now must hold a secret ballot and win a 60 percent majority to unionize. But that strategy gives management time to intimidate workers to keep unions away, the newspaper reported.

By example, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that intimidation tactics at Norton Audubon Hospital in Louisville, Ky., in 1994 made "free choice by the employees slight to nonexistent."

"The time has come to no longer coerce and intimidate workers who seek to have a say at work," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

As it stands, however, while union membership has dropped from 25 percent of the private workforce 30 years ago to 7.4 percent now, the bill does not appear to have enough support to block a filibuster, the Times said.