Business girds for push by unions on Obama win

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Organized labor strongly supported Democrat Barack Obama and soon after he moves into the White House, the U.S. president-elect can expect a knock on the door from union leaders seeking to call in their chits.

Corporate America is bracing for a bold offensive from labor early in 2009, led off most likely by a renewed push in Congress to pass legislation, fiercely opposed by business, that would make it easier to organize unions in the workplace.

Big retailers are high on the list of companies facing heightened unionization risk, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Home Depot Inc, Lowe's Cos Inc, Target Corp and Macy's Inc, analysts said.

"You'll see an all-out battle at Wal-Mart" by labor, said attorney Richard Hankins, who leads the labor and employment practice at the law firm of Kilpatrick Stockton.

The legislation -- known as the Employee Free Choice Act, or the "card check" bill -- would let unions be certified once a majority of employees sign union authorization cards.

Forming a union now requires a majority of employees to vote in a government-supervised, secret-ballot election.

The bill would additionally set timelines for first contracts between unions and employees, and raise fines on employers that violate employees' rights to unionize.

Unions say the bill would enhance employees' rights to form a union, while companies complain it would take away employees' rights to cast a confidential vote on whether to unionize.

An executive at Wal-Mart, which has kept its U.S. stores union-free, told analysts last month the company was concerned about what it called the "Employee Forced Choice Act."

The House of Representatives approved the bill in March 2007, but it stalled in the narrowly split Senate. On Tuesday, Democrats increased their majorities in both chambers.

Mike Asensio, a attorney who heads the labor relations practice team at the law firm of Baker Hostetler, said there probably will be enough votes in the Senate to withstand a filibuster and get some form of the legislation passed.

"Labor has been fighting for 14 years through political contributions to have a voice .. . They now have a Democrat in the White House who will sign labor reform," he said.

House Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, a California Democrat, said on Wednesday that Democrats in the next Congress "will fight to restore workers' rights."

In the face of a gradual, long-term decline in U.S. union membership, unions often point to a December 2006 national survey by Peter Hart Research indicating that 53 percent of U.S. workers would join a union if they could.

One main reason more people don't join unions is that the system for establishing them allows employers to intimidate and discourage organizing, unions say.