Corporate America is preparing for a landmark political battle with the new Obama administration and a Democratic Congress over proposed labour union reforms, while expressing concerns about the direction of trade policy, healthcare and a range of other issues.

The business community has stepped up its oppositon to the union-backed Employee Free Choice Act, which Mr Obama has said he supports. It could revitalise the US labour movement by enhancing the ability of unions to organise.

The bill, a version of which was blocked in the Senate last year, would grant workplace union recognition if a majority of workers sign union cards, rather than allowing employers to request a secret ballot.

The unions argue that the secret ballot has been regularly used as a tactic to slow and obstruct workplace recognition.

Earlier this year, the lobby group Workplace Freedom Institute began campaigning against the bill, launching a website called savetheelection.com. The group says it is funded by “business owners who enjoy good working relationships with their employees” and that it seeks to educate Americans about the proposals.

“The business community is very concerned about the so-called Employee Free Choice Act,” said John Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable, which represents the interest of more than 100 large US companies in Washington.

“The law would really change the dynamics of how companies will be able to compensate employees in a way that also preserves the interests of shareholders.”

Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the US, which has a staunch anti- union record, has already made its opposition clear. Lee Scott, Wal-Mart’s chief executive, told analysts last week that the change would result in “making this country less competitive” and “bringing coercion and force into the workplace”.

Should the act become law, transport and trucking companies such as FedEx and Con-Way could see more of their parcel and freight employees organise.

During the campaign, US business also expressed concerns over Mr Obama’s position on free trade, which included suggesting a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Jeff Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, warned that the US risks ceding high-paying industrial jobs if it failed to keep its borders open to foreign trade.

“You can’t have it both ways,” he said yesterday during a speech at the Business for Social Responsibility conference in New York. “You can’t aim high and not have open borders.”

On healthcare, Mr Obama’s platform included setting a minimum contribution level for businesses to their employees’ healthcare plans, an approach that has been opposed at state level by big non-unionised retailers, including Wal-Mart.

The retailer, with more than 1.3m staff, has said it wants to work on healthcare reform with a new administration. It is also part of an alliance with the SEIU and telecom workers unions that has been seeking to develop a political consensus on the direction of healthcare reform.

Additional reporting by Francesco Guerrera