The Weekly Standard has picked up the story of union officials pushing the hilariously misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act,” which would effectively kill the right to secret ballot elections by employees deciding whether to join a union. The paper’s Whitney Blake was kind enough to ask for thoughts from the Center for Union Facts’ executive director, and reported:

Big Labor sees card checks as their chance at revitalization. In 1983, 20 percent of American workers were unionized; in 2006 it was down to 12 percent (36.2 percent of public sector workers and 7.4 percent of private). Card checks would increase the number of union members and are expected to almost double the size of unions’ coffers. Rick Berman of the Center for Union Facts predicts that the unions could be “conservatively sitting on another $5 billion in dues money.”

The act would exponentially increase organized labor’s power on the political scene. Much of the new money would be poured into political campaigns and lobbying efforts. Organized labor would be “by far the largest political-financial institution in the country with an extremely left-leaning agenda,” says Berman.

Blake and the Standard add:

Unions have a decent shot at success with their agenda because there is no formidable opposition. Big Business isn’t as unified and often prefers concession over conflict. “Confrontation is bad for business,” one trade association lobbyist notes. “Businesses have never been effective at combating labor.”