People who complain about the lack of “issues” being discussed in the U.S. Presidential campaign rarely point to labor relations as one of the most significant issues being determined this November. But, with all that’s developed in global trade over the recent months, the looming possibility of trade wars is magnifying the significance of the labor issues to be decided during the next administration.

Global discussions toward a wide-ranging free-trade program collapsed last week — not because of objections by Western interests, but because of the emerging defiance to the idea from India and China (particularly), as well as Brazil and other “emerging” trading giants. They don’t want to be in the position of supplying commodity goods alone, while North American and European nations supply the value-added products.

This would be understandable, and maybe negotiable, if the “developed” nations were not already split over their own economic futures. On our side, there is a split between those who think growth can only be measured by capital gains and those who think progress is indicated by financial security. One variation of this split is the management-labor divide.

This is not a new development, but it’s current outbreak centers around the Employee Free Choice Act. (We’ve covered it before, and we will again in the coming weeks.)  This is the so-called “card check” legislation that would allow unions to initiate organizing drives without notifying employers, and would prevent employers from effectively verifying the results of unionization votes.

Wal-Mart caught some scrutiny last week for its efforts at discouraging store managers from supporting Democrat candidates, who they recognize would support a more union-friendly approach in Washington. Wal-Mart no doubt also is concerned over an outbreak of anti-free trade policies and regulations, because its success is based as much on availability of goods as it is on affordable labor. It relies on high levels of consumer spending, which would be seriously impacted by both higher fixed labor costs (it would spur higher unemployment) and higher consumer prices.

The concern for domestic manufacturers is surely the higher labor costs that will be inevitable if EFCA becomes law. But, the concern for all of us ought to be the sort of global trade environment that prevails when EFCA becomes law.