WASHINGTON — American workplaces could look a lot more like those in Quebec or Western Europe if Democrat leaders get their way.

A bill pushed by unions to make it easier for them to organize companies in the U.S. was introduced in both the House and the Senate Tuesday.

The Employee Free Choice Act, also known as "card check" legislation, would enable workers to form a union if a majority of employees sign authorization cards, taking away the ability of businesses to require a secret-ballot election.

The bill is widely expected to pass the House but faces a tougher fight in the Senate, according to reports.

Management interests, including the American Trucking Associations, are against the bill.

"Labor’s goal is to unionize small and large employers, radically regulate the workplace, and dictate the business decisions of public companies," said Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and former president of American Trucking Associations. "(Organized labor is) not playing around, and neither can we," Donohue said as he launched a national, multimillion-dollar program to fight card check and other labor initiatives.

Labor’s view is that the current procedure is unfair because it gives management the choice of calling for the secret ballot. "Management-controlled election process does not allow workers the freedom to make their own choice about whether to have a union," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "Its one-sided rules give the bosses all the power and all the choices."

Conversely, business leaders contend that card check would give unions the ability to coerce and intimidate workers during the sign-up process. A private ballot would make it difficult for any authoritative interest — be it management or union leaders — to interfere with an individual’s choice, they argue.

Legendary investor and prominent Obama economic advisor Warren Buffett has come out in opposition to the legislation this week. In an appearance on CNBC Monday morning, Buffett said, "I think the secret ballot’s pretty important in the country. I’m against card check, to make a perfectly flat statement."

Buffett’s opposition to card check comes on the heels of the release of a new economic study showing that the card check scheme will eliminate 600,000 American jobs by 2010 and result in severe job losses in future years as the workforce becomes more unionized, reports the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, the leading business coalition opposing card check. The study, which was conducted by noted economist, Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar, concludes that every 3 percent increase in unionization will lead to a 1 percent increase in unemployment.

— with files from Truckinginfo.com