The bill has to address& 8230 fast elections, eliminating employer behavior and what happens if there are employer violations".
Several labor leaders said they would accept legislation with fast elections only if it included arbitration and tougher penalties for companies that break labor laws.
In an interview Thursday evening, Richard Trumka, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s secretary-treasurer, who will become the federation's president on Sept. 16, stopped short of endorsing fast elections.
Mr. Sweeney said that corporate lobbyists would find it harder to attack fast elections than card check because business could no longer contend that labor wanted to eliminate "sacrosanct secret-ballot elections".
Corporate lobbyists have indicated they would oppose fast elections, arguing that such a provision would deny employers ample opportunity to educate employees about the downside of unionizing, such as strikes and union dues.
Experts said that the flurry of fund-raising was simply the natural outgrowth of the fast election cycle.
In an interview, John J. Sweeney, the federation's president, said he would accept a fast election campaign instead of card check because it would meet his goal of minimizing management interference during organizing drives.
Then we were in budget hearings until 11 or 12 midnight, and finally the dust clears and you look up at 'well I'm running and it's July already.' " But some public policy experts argue that the early hubbub, in part a result of the potent combination of a fast election cycle and campaign finance reform, is actually a good thing.
"I worry about going too fast towards elections, that the parties are still weak," said Nabil Ahmed Helmy, former dean of the Zagazig law school and a member of the National Council for Human Rights.
A6 World Briefing A9 NATIONAL A12-16 Congress Is Returning To Face Tough Issues Congress, fast approaching elections that will determine control of the House and Senate, returns on Tuesday to try to resolve a division over the shape of a new Homeland Security Department and confront the issue of Iraq, which has intensified in the month that lawmakers have been away.
