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President Barack Obama's appointment of a radical union activist, along with another pro-union appointee, to the National Labor Relations Board could mean a renewed push by anti-business forces for the anti-jobs, anti-worker Employee Free Choice Act (union card check).

The PA Chamber and its members have been out front in the fight against the deceptively titled EFCA and its harmful provisions to effectively eliminate the private union ballot and force job-crushing government binding arbitration on employers. Over the past year, the Chamber has lead business participation in three “fly-ins” to Washington, D.C. in an effort to keep EFCA at bay. The most recent event took place in March of this year, when nearly 100 businesses and local chambers met with the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation to discuss the devastating impacts EFCA would have on business and job creation.

To date, these efforts have been successful. However, the change in the makeup of the NLRB – a body whose duties are supposed to include balancing the interests of unions, employers and employees – raises a new concern: if the measure can't get a second wind legislatively, some of the desired outcomes could be achieved through broad rule-making.

There is good reason for concern.

Becker, a former AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union lawyer, is most notorious for many of his legal writings. He has written that employers should have little rights during union organizing drives and even advocated eliminating the option of "no union" from a voting ballot so that it couldn't be a consideration for employees.

Becker has also vociferously supported card check legislation and his nomination is a clear signal to the business community that EFCA may once again rear its ugly head.

The PA Chamber continues to engage its members and Pennsylvania's entire business community in an effort to stop EFCA or similar proposals from being implemented.

Union card check is a threat to worker freedoms, and binding arbitration is a job-killing requirement that is equally as harmful to American workers and damaging to a nation still trying to recover fully from the recession.

For more information on union card check legislation and its negative implications for workers and the economy, click here.