As organized labor celebrated the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act of 2007 through the House Education and Labor Committee yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney was busy preparing the President’s veto pen. Jesse Russell has more:

On Wednesday morning Vice President Dick Cheney took some time to speak before a business lobby group and used that opportunity to express the administration’s opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.

[Cheney]: Our Administration rejects any attempt to short-circuit the rights of workers. We will defend their right to vote yes or no by secret ballot and their right to fair bargaining. H.R. 800 violates these principles, and if it is sent to the President, he will veto the bill.

If passed the Employee Free Choice Act would strengthen the protections afforded to pro-union workers. It would stiffen penalties against employers that illegally fire workers for union activity - The Center for Economic Policy Research released a study that showed employers fire one in five union advocates and a Cornell University study showed that in 2004 92 percent of employers forced employees to take part in mandatory anti-union captive audience presentations. The bill also allows workers to form a union based simply on majority sign up - skirting the long drawn out process that comes from the employer implemented National Labor Relations Board elections.