JEFFERSON CITY — Bush and Rove back together again. Well, sort of anyway.

William H. T. “Bucky” Bush (uncle of former President George W. Bush) and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce are sponsoring a fund-raiser to help the Chamber fight the Employee Free Choice Act, and former Bush strategist Karl Rove is the keynote speaker.

The July 15 event is at the St. Louis Club in Clayton and will cost $1,000 to get in. Chambers of Commerce nationally have opposed the EFCA, suggesting that the act will eliminate secret ballot elections when employees organize unions.

The bill doesn’t eliminate the secret ballot, but takes away the employer mandate, and makes other regulatory changes that tilt the union forming process in labor’s direction. Unions argue that under the current system, employers face no legitimate repercussions for intimidating employees against forming unions.

The bill has been the labor movement’s top priority as Democrats took control of Congress and the White House, but it has stalled because of stiff opposition.