Another blow to card check

 WASHINGTON — In another blow to the card check union organizing bill, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat from Arkansas, told a luncheon audience in Little Rock yesterday she will oppose it.

"While I may not have been clear about my position in the past, I am stating today that I cannot support Employee Free Choice Act in its current form and I can’t support efforts to bring it to Senate consideration in its current form,"  she said in a statement after the speech.

Here is the report from arkansasnews.com, one of the Review-Journal's sister publications in Stephens Media. John Brummett, the top political commentator in that state, added his two cents.

With organized labor and its supporters in the Senate needing every Democratic senator to stay on board in order to reach a 60-vote threshold to move the bill forward, Lincoln's defection makes their hill even steeper to climb.

Already, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has expressed reservations about the bill. And in a well-publicized development two weeks ago, Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who had voted in favor of the measure two years ago, announced he was coming out against it.

In some circles, Lincoln's announcement is being described as the final nail in the coffin of card check, although the AFL-CIO said it was not ready to call it quits.

Lincoln, a conservative Democrat in a right to work state that is the headquarters of union-unfriendly Wal Mart Corp., was facing heavy pressure from both sides of the issue.

American Rights at Work, a labor group, was conducting grassroots lobbying in that state this week, and had launched an advertising campaign featuring several Arkansas workers.

Formally known as the Employee Free Choice Act, the "card check" legislation would make it easier for workers to organize into unions in their workplace.  It is the top priority legislation of organized labor in Congress,  while business groups have been vociferous in arguing against it.