By a 26-19 party-line vote, the House Education and Labor Committee voted Feb. 14 for the legislation, designed to level the playing field between workers and bosses in labor-management relations.

And, in a development unions forecast, Cheney told the National Association of Manufacturers the same day that President George W. Bush would veto it.

Union leaders hailed the vote on their top legislative priority in the new Democratic-run 110th Congress. But EFCA faces a rocky road in the narrowly Democratic Senate, and House Republican leaders, though their party is outnumbered there, have made a vote against EFCA a test of party loyalty.

If approved, EFCA would require employers to recognize a union when a majority of workers sign up. This simple process would eliminate many of the delays and illegal employer abuses that occur in the current bureaucratic election process.

EFCA "levels the playing field to give workers a fighting chance to have a union and bargain for better wages and benefits," AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney said in hailing the House panel’s decision.

Change to Win Chair Anna Burger urged workers to lobby the House and the Senate.

"Currently, corporations have a veto over whether or not workers can join together in a union if a majority of workers sign cards indicating that they want a union. EFCA would let workers -- not the boss -- decide that for themselves. In America, that\'s the way things are supposed to be," she declared.

Unions are planning activities in support of the legislation across the country this week as lawmakers return to their home districts for the Congressional recess.

Cheney told the National Association of Manufacturers the legislation would "short-circuit the rights of workers." His comments did not address the failure of the current union election process, nor the fact that one in every five workers who try to form a union can expect to be illegally fired.

Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.