Perhaps it is too early to begin vote counting in the ever-mounting fight over the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), but recent developments give anti-EFCA advocates some reason to be optimistic that this legislation will be slowed, if not stopped altogether, in becoming law.

            Earlier this month, Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) revealed that she will not support this legislation; EFCA was the central component of President Obama’s campaign platform appealing to organized labor.  Undoubtedly, the shadow cast by Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores was not lost on the senior senator from Arkansas. 

In late March, Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa) announced that he would not support the Employee Free Choice Act – kind of.  Recall that Senator Specter supported the recent stimulus package drawing strong criticism from some Republicans.  Specter has a history of going against his party and so his vote against EFCA was certainly not a given.  Speaking on the floor of the Senate on March 24, Specter lamented that “on the merits, it is a close call . . . .”  In the end, at least for now, Specter said he could not support the legislation.  Leaving the proverbial door wide open, Specter in that same speech said that “[T]he problems of the recession make this a particularly bad time to enact Employee Free Choice legislation.”  What if the economy improved . . . would Senator Specter change his mind?  Specter went on to say that if amendments to the National Labor Relations Act did not provide organized labor with sufficient bargaining power, “then I will be willing to reconsider Employees’ Free Choice legislation when the economy returns to normalcy.”  At least for the time being, opponents of EFCA can count Senator Specter.

Proponents of EFCA received good word on Monday; this coming time from a Minnesota court.  It was on April 13 that a Minnesota court confirmed that Democrat Al Franken won the contested senate seat.  Challenger Norm Coleman still has 10 days to appeal the decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court and any appeal would necessarily delay certification of the election results.  If in the end Franken wins the seat, this would undoubtedly be a vote for EFCA.

So, as organized labor and pro-business groups begin taking their message on EFCA to the airwaves, mailboxes, union halls, and breakfast meetings of America, the posturing on this legislation, at least in the Senate, is in full swing.