By Doug Cunningham

AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel expects Congress to take up the Employee Free Choice Act labor law reform by the Spring. He says this reform would build worker buying power, so lacking right now.

[Samuel]: “As we try to employ three to four million people as President Obama has said he wants to do, if we can do and restore purchasing power at the same time by giving workers collective bargaining rights that will make sure the recovery is sustained. And it's a proven method, going back to the New Deal and the postwar period, that organized labor and collective bargaining helps the economy and helps strengthen the middle class."

The Employee Free Choice Act allows workers to form unions by simply signing union cards. Employers want to keep the right to force elections because during those elections the boss can mount aggressive anti-union campaigns to instill fear into workers to intimidate them out of their legal right to organize. A majority of workers say in polls they would join unions if they could, this reform makes it easier for them to do it.

[Samuel]: “It's not just about workers' rights, but about human rights and improving the conditions for all workers."