The day after Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., told the AFL-CIO's national convention that he would support EFCA -- reversing a stance he took six months before as a Republican -- Senate Democrats walked back his prediction that it would pass this year.

Obama, speaking to the AFL-CIO on the same day as Specter, made brief mention of EFCA, saying, "We'll grow our middle class by building a stronger labor movement.... That's why I stand behind the Employee Free Choice Act -- because if a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union."

A group of six moderate and liberal Senate Democrats have engineered significant changes to EFCA, beginning with the removal of the provision that gave the bill its informal name: "card check," which would have meant collecting signed cards as a means to unionization rather than a secret ballot.

The altered bill would also speed up the process of arranging a vote on unionizing, and would make arbitration automatic if management and workers can't agree on a contract in 120 days.

A co-sponsor of the original card check bill in 2007, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., warned he will not support EFCA if it is brought to a vote this year, citing the current economic crisis as his reason. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., predicted that if the Senate addresses the legislation first, it is highly unlikely to reach the House floor. In the meantime, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO president is pressuring centrist Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to vote for EFCA in return for the union's help in winning a primary challenge next year.

EFCA is being reintroduced in both chambers this week, but the Senate may block the legislation as it did in 2007. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said this version will resemble that bill. AFL-CIO legislative director Bill Samuel predicted the bill would pass if all former supporters again vote "yes" and all freshman Democrats join them -- but that number would have to include Al Franken, who has yet to be declared the winner of the Minnesota Senate race. And at least five Democrats who had previously voted "yes" are now expressing opposition or uncertainty towards the bill.

Obama, a Senate co-sponsor of EFCA, told the Washington Post on Jan. 15 that it may not be his first order of business: "If we're losing half a million jobs a month, then there are no jobs to unionize, so my focus first is on those key economic priority items I just mentioned," he said. "Let's see what the legislative docket looks like." The paper also wrote that Obama "said there may be other ways to achieve the same goal without angering businesses." Labor Secretary-designate Hilda Solis, also an EFCA co-sponsor in the House, avoided specifics in her Senate confirmation hearing.