Billionaire publishing magnate Steve Forbes is calling from New York.

He wants to make the case against union organizing legislation pending in the Senate.

"It does away with the secret ballot in organizing elections," Forbes says.

"That's more reminiscent of North Korea and Iran than the USA."

The legislation would lead to "lots of unemployment," Forbes says, and stifle job creation.

Forbes, a 1996 and 2000 Republican presidential candidate, is calling a newspaper in Nebraska for one reason.

Yes, he acknowledges, Sen. Ben Nelson is a key vote.

"He's a critical swing senator," Forbes says. "He and a handful of other senators hold the fate of this bill in their hands."

Nelson, a centrist Democrat, has stated he cannot support the so-called employees free choice act in its present form.

But the more significant vote Nelson will cast would be on a motion to end a Republican filibuster and free the legislation for a final vote. Sixty votes will be required on that cloture motion.

Nelson usually supports cloture, but he has not yet signaled how he would vote.

The legislation would allow employees to organize their workplace if a majority sign cards seeking union representation. Under current law, employers can require a secret-ballot election.

"Workers need to be able to vote in secret on something so fundamental without intimidation, without somebody looking over their shoulders," Forbes says.

Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine and president and CEO of the company, also objects to the bill's provisions for arbitration in the event of a stalemate in union-management negotiations.

"If you don't reach an immediate agreement," he says, "the government sends in a bureaucrat to impose a solution."

It's "compulsory arbitration," Forbes says, "with no appeal."

The bill proposes time frames for mediation, and ultimately arbitration, if negotiations become deadlocked.

Forbes said the legislation is "a job killer" and represents "a payoff to unions" for their campaign contributions.

Earlier this year, the AFL-CIO official assigned to spearhead the drive to win enactment of the bill came to Omaha and Lincoln to argue labor's case.

Stewart Acuff, special assistant to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, also had his eye on Nelson.

"He's a practical man," Acuff said. "And it's on us to make the case that this is practical legislation."

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.