It doesn’t seem to matter which way political winds blow – Big Labor continues to find plenty of ways to spend its energy and its members’ dues. They are pouring money into campaigns around the country, and this “funding frenzy” will continue through the November elections. The AFL-CIO just sent 2.5 million pieces of campaign mail targeting Republicans in about 50 congressional and gubernatorial races. Big Labor will continue to demand an aggressive labor agenda. Their push for lame duck session action will probably be determined by the magnitude of their November losses. 
Pushback is coming from all quarters. South Dakota is the latest to take up state action to protect the secret ballot for unionization votes. In South Carolina, where a similar measure is working its way through the legislative process, the AFL-CIO sponsored an event featuring Gale Tuzzolo, who addressed the subject of secret ballot referendums nationwide. New Hampshire is getting in on the act, as a new pro-business coalition put out a video excoriating U.S. Representative and Senate Candidate Paul Hodes for his statement about the EFCA, “If I told you the pushback I have been getting about [EFCA] we’d be here all night, but it’s the right thing to do.” The Senate is even taking the Obama administration to task. Through a resolution (S.J. Res. 30) sponsored by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), they are dusting off a law that could help curb many government excesses. The Congressional Review Act of 1996 allows Congress to review agency-enacted rules, and repeal them. The target of this action is the rule change made by the National Mediation Board in 2009 to how elections are tabulated under the Railway Labor Act, making companies that fall under the RLA more susceptible to unionization. Big Labor continues to look for any possible angle for rule changes that could circumvent the legislative process to attain their ends. Another example is the attempted resurrection of the ability to recognize workers in a non-majority union. As described by Labor Notes writers Judy Atkins and David Cohen,
A group of 46 labor lawyers, led by NLRA expert Charles Morris, a law professor at Southern Methodist University, urged the NLRB to do so this June, organizing an amicus brief to a long-delayed case to add pressure. The brief grows out of a 2005 case in which the Steelworkers (USW) had organized workers at a Pittsburgh warehouse but did not have majority support. The union demanded that the owner, Dick’s Sporting Goods, bargain with the workers over health and safety issues. The company refused and the case went to the NLRB. The following year, NLRB’s Advice section urged the board to turn the Steelworkers down. Its interpretation said unions must prove they have the support of a majority of workers, usually through an NLRB election, before an employer can be compelled to enter into negotiations.
