The Employee Free Choice Act would level the playing field for workers who want to join a union by among other things, allowing workers to choose a union if more than 50 percent of a worksite sign union authorization cards. Teresa Joyce and her co-workers at Cingular Wireless in Lebanon, Va., know that process works—they’ve seen it firsthand.

But it wasn’t always that way. When she started working at AT&T Wireless in 2003, she says she realized the employees had no voice and raises were determined by favoritism, not a reflection of work or ability.