WASHINGTON — Tennessee and Georgia’s Republican members of Congress blasted a Democratic-sponsored bill introduced today that would make it easier for workers to join unions.

The Republicans said the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers to establish a union without having to hold a secret-ballot vote, would allow union leaders to intimidate workers into joining.

“This legislation we are considering today is the most radical piece of legislation before the Congress,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said at a hearing today of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which he sits on.

The bill was introduced today in both the House and the Senate.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., also a member of the committee, where the bill was introduced in the Senate, said the current secret ballot system is preferable because it neither advocates nor discourages unionization.

“This legislation creates a situation of worker intimidation and prohibits the ability of management and labor to work together in an increasingly dynamic economy,” he said

Supporters of the bill counter that anti-union business owners and executives have made unionization difficult and that workers need more protections to ensure fair working conditions.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who introduced the bill in the Senate, said the penalties on employers who fire workers for organizing amount “to little more than a slap on the wrist.”

“When 60 percent of workers want to join a union but only 7 percent belong to one, something is broken,” he said.

Unions have made the legislation, which failed last year, a priority, while business groups are opposed.

For complete details, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press.