After generations of decline, hopes for a union comeback are pinned on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — a bill in Congress that would make it easier for workers to unionize and get a fair union contract.

That bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives March 1 by a vote of 241 to 185. It has majority support in the U.S. Senate, but Senate rules allow the minority to thwart the will of the majority, because it takes 60 of the Senate’s 100 members to close off debate. The vote to close off debate was 51 to 48. Opponents of the bill voted not to end debate.

If EFCA had passed the Senate, President Bush was certain to veto it. So no one expected it to become law this year. But holding a vote made members of Congress declare which side they’re on, said Steve Smith, spokesperson for the AFL-CIO.

“We have every single member of the House and Senate on record,” Smith said. “Do they stand with working people or not?”

Under EFCA, if the majority of employees in a workplace want a union, they could unionize simply by signing authorization cards. Employers would have to begin bargaining a contract no more than 10 days after a request from the newly certified union. If no agreement has been reached 90 days later, either side could call in a federal mediator. If there’s still no agreement 30 days after that, the mediator would refer the dispute to an arbitration panel, which would decide the details of a union contract, binding for two years. The contract could only be amended by agreement of union and management.

Finally, illegal anti-union conduct by management — such as firing union supporters, conducting surveillance, or interrogating workers about their views on the union — would get faster and heavier penalties.

Every part of EFCA is a response to the current labor law’s failure to protect workers’ right to unionize. Under the National Labor Relations Act, workers unionize via a government-administered election, but the law gives employers many ways to delay the vote. Union organizers can’t visit the workplace and can’t even get workers addresses until late in the process. Employers can require workers to attend anti-union meetings and one-on-one sessions with supervisors. And employers routinely violate the law during union campaigns, because the penalties are so minor — workers fired for supporting the union campaign only have to be offered reinstatement and back pay — minus whatever wages they earned since the firing. And it can take two to five years to get that, by which time the failed union drive is just a memory.

If a union wins an election, it can take two years to get a first contract, and studies show that half the time they never get a first contract. The law says the employer is supposed to bargain in good faith, but in practice that’s pretty meaningless; there’s very little a union can do to make an employer sign a contract if they don’t want to.

Little wonder then, that EFCA is far and away the AFL-CIO’s highest priority.

To pass, EFCA will need 60 supporters in the Senate — nine more than it had this year.

The vote split very strongly along party lines — Democrats voted for the bill, Republicans against. In the House, out of 201 Republicans, just 13 voted in favor of the bill, and out of 233 Democrats, just two voted against it. In the Senate, just one member voted outside party lines — Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter. Oregon’s Gordon Smith was a “no” vote, while Ron Wyden and Washington’s Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray were “yes” votes.

Smith said it would be very tough to get nine more Senate Democrats elected next year, but it’s possible they could pick up five or six seats, and the AFL-CIO would continue to work on Republican senators to support the bill.

At least 18 state governors have signed a letter in support of EFCA, including Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire. So have over 1,350 state and local elected officials. And 55 cities, counties and state legislatures have voted resolutions of support.

Oregon’s Legislature isn’t yet one of them. Democrats control the Oregon House 31 to 29, and House leaders were able to pass three “right to organize” bills. But a non-binding resolution in support of EFCA couldn’t find majority support. After it became clear in behind-the-scenes negotiations that at least two Democrats would vote against it, backers withdrew the bill from consideration on the House floor. Portland Democrat Diane Rosenbaum said she intends to bring it up again in a future legislative session.

Finally, for EFCA to become law, it will need a president to sign it. All seven Democratic presidential candidates say they would sign EFCA. None of the Republican candidates have pledged to sign the bill.

But union support won’t come just because a candidate checked a box on a questionnaire, says the AFL-CIO’s Smith. “We’re looking to see which candidate is really going to push this bill.”