Speaking recently to the Communications Workers of America, Senator Hillary Clinton said of the Employee Free Choice Act:  " The facts are indisputable. There's no debate here." There is, however, considerable debate outside the confines of the nation's union halls, and it is pretty intense. 

In "The marriage of hypocrisy and corruption in Washington, "  Democratic political operative and harsh corporate critic David Sirota writes that "Corporate America wants Congress to believe that it is worried about workers' democratic rights at the very same time it is telling shareholders (the owners of the companies) that they should have no democratic rights at all. "

Meanwhile, conservative columnist and activist Deroy Murdock, writes in "Thuggery abounds in union organizing bids," that "Beyond vote suppression, other union card-check tactics seem stolen from a Martin Scorsese picture."

The intense rhetoric also comes from the halls of the U.S. Senate.

Echoing his floor statement from earlier this week, Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT), a former union member,  issued a press release attacking the EFCA:

“Labor unions are supposed to protect workers’ rights, yet union bosses want Congress to pass a law that actually robs workers of their democratic right to a private ballot,” Hatch said. “Union bosses have made Congress an offer we can refuse.”

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“This bill is unionization by intimidation,” Hatch said. “We wouldn’t allow politicians to bully voters at the ballot box, and we shouldn’t allow unions to do the same to employees. It seems obvious that big labor just wants to rebuild its membership rolls – and its bank account – through a forced unionization process.”

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“I was a card-carrying member of the AFL-CIO metal lather union in my youth, and I understand the role that unions can play,” Hatch said. “That role should be to protect workers from employer exploitation. But this bill is a form of union exploitation, and workers are counting on us to stop it.”

On the other side of the aisle, in a statement accompanying his introduction of the Senate version of the bill, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) asserted:

Unscrupulous employers routinely break the law to keep unions out—they intimidate employees, harass them, and discriminate against them.  They shut down whole departments—or even entire plants—to avoid negotiating a union contract. It’s illegal and unacceptable, but it happens every day.  

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Year after year, Congress has refused to act against these union-busting tactics that are now all too familiar in the workplace.  It’s time to listen to the voice of America’s working men and women, and give them what they want and deserve – a fair voice in the workplace and a fair chance at the American dream.