Since the Democrats took over Congress last November, organized labor has focused on one major legislative goal: passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

EFCA passed the House of Representatives in March of this year and finally made its way to the Senate floor last week for debate. The bill, however, probably will not be able to find 60 supporters in the Senate today, and, for all intents and purposes, will be legislatively dead.

Those employees and employers opposed to this union power grab can take small satisfaction in this Senate victory. But make no mistake about it: the Employee Free Choice Act will be back on the horizon in the near future, both as a campaign issue in 2008, and a legislative priority in 2009, especially if the Democrats win the White House.

The misnamed bill would do away with the historic system of organizing workers — secret-ballot elections — and instead allow labor to organize workers through a “card check,” which allows employees to join a union simply by signing a card out in the open.

The process will make it much easier for unions to organize, but also opens the door to intimidation and coercion tactics that secret-ballot elections protect against.

The legislation also would fundamentally change the way that first contracts are negotiated between unions and employers, essentially allowing government arbitrators the ability to set wages and benefits for private-sector companies if the two sides can not reach a deal.

In fact, organized labor knew from the start that actually passing EFCA was never a reality this year. Republicans controlled enough votes in the Senate to stall the bill and President Bush was not going to sign it.

But labor has realized for quite some time that EFCA is a long-term goal. And, in order to achieve that goal, they have embarked on a multi-year political and legislative strategy.

As a first step in passing EFCA, labor groups persuaded friendly Democrats to introduce the bill in previous Republican controlled Congresses. While they knew that the bill was going nowhere, labor was able to start building a coalition and force politicians to take a stance on it. Most Democrats and labor-friendly Republicans signed onto the bill, some hoping to build goodwill with unions while others thought that it was safe to do so since the bill was headed nowhere.

When Democrats took back Congress, they ramped up these efforts even more, knowing that the chances of actually passing the bill were slim. This time they held hearings on EFCA, conducted rallies and letter writing campaigns, and made intensive lobbying efforts. Many legislators found out that it was nearly impossible to back away from the bill if they had previously supported it, even with the change in political landscape. Some have even called the last couple of months a “dress-rehearsal.”

The real show could come in 2009. If Democrats hold the House, pick up a few seats in the Senate, and win the White House, then it’s easy to see EFCA becoming a law. Labor leaders have already put the Democratic candidates on notice that supporting EFCA will be a litmus test for campaign contributions and election manpower that labor unions provide.

The national organizing director for the AFL-CIO, Stewart Acuff, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week, “We will do all we can to focus the election in ‘08 on fundamental economic issues, including the Employee Free Choice Act. It is our No. 1 priority.”

With labor support being critical for any Democratic candidate, it’s hard to imagine they will buck their demands. Likewise, labor will remember campaign promises and come ready to cash in their political poker chips if Democrats do control Congress and the White House in the spring of 2009.

While passing EFCA will help labor unions and Democratic campaign coffers, the legislation might have negative consequences for Democrats too. That’s because it could very easily turn out that many workers will resent the idea that unions could come into their workplaces and unionize without even having a secret-ballot election.

And while many Democratic politicians still view labor unions as critical for the middle-class, objective public opinion polls have reached a different conclusion. A Harris Interactive survey found that “Most American adults overall, most employed adults and, surprisingly, many union households rate labor unions negatively.” The poll, which was taken after the recent spate of corporate scandals, said that respondents even rated corporate America more positively than labor unions.

If workers are browbeaten, intimidated, and harassed into joining a labor union, they might start blaming the political party behind the bill for all of the chaos at their workplace.

As we have found out so far, the Employee Free Choice is a bill that will take a long time to actually pass. If that day ever does come, it might haunt Democrats well into the future.

Mr. O’Keefe is a labor and higher education policy analyst in Washington, D.C.