"Unions worked very hard to elect Barack Obama in 2008. Labor leaders made a concerted effort to counter defections to Republican John McCain among white workers, who some commentators predicted would be reluctant to vote for an African-American candidate. Obama received 59 percent of the vote from those residing in union households. This was precisely the share of the labor vote won by the Democratic presidential nominee in 1996, 2000, and 2004. The Obama victory and expanded Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate enhanced the prospects for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). This legislation would facilitate union organizing in the U.S. Despite Democratic control of the executive and legislative branches, the ferocious opposition to EFCA by business interests made it difficult to predict the fate of EFCA in early 2009."

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