Organized labor suffered a major defeat in the Senate on June 26 on a key procedural vote on a bill that would make it easier for unions to organize nonunion workers. Labor's Senate allies came up with 51 votes to end debate on the Employee Free Choice Act, nine short of the 60 that Senate rules require. The action seems to doom the bill, at least for the near future. Business groups, which strongly opposed the bill, praised the vote.