GOP Sure They Can Block Unions' Aims
Supporters of allowing unions to organize workplaces without a secret ballot election won a small victory Tuesday when an influential GOP senator said he wouldn't block the bill, but it still seemed destined to fall to a Republican Senate blockade. Republican Sen. Arlen Specter announced that he would vote not to block the Employee Free Choice Act. Specter noted, however, that his vote would not mean that he would have supported the bill's passage ? only debate of bill so that "we may consider a great many very important and complex issues." But Republicans are still confident they have the 41 votes needed to block it in the Senate. That's all it takes under Senate rules requiring a three-fifths majority to advance contentious legislation over opponents' objections.
See "GOP Sure They Can Block Unions' Aims", Jesse J. Holland, San Francisco Chronicle, June 25, 2007