Since 1794, when Philadelphia shoemakers created the first labor union-the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers-collective bargaining has been a table over which employees and employers could discuss differences. In about four out of five instances today, unions earn a seat at the bargaining table as the result of winning employee support through a private ballot election. But the employee privilege of that private vote is being threatened by a measure before Congress.
 
Why would Congress do this? With the exception of some recent upticks, union membership has been falling for more than a half century.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 12 percent of all employees were union members in 2008, compared to 35 percent in the 1950s.
 
To halt that slide, labor advocates are pushing to change federal organizing rules. They want to afford unions the choice to bypass the secret ballot in order to organize workplaces faster. They support a legislative proposal ironically named the "Employee Free Choice Act," or EFCA. Keep in mind this effort comes at a time when employers nationwide are suffocating, and even the relatively low Champaign County unemployment rate is nearing 7 percent.
 
Since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, employees have joined unions through either a government-supervised election at the workplace, or through a less used process known as "card check." Under card check, a union becomes the official bargaining representative for workers when it obtains cards signed by a majority of employees.
 
Unions, through EFCA, want to make card check the only way for employees to join a union. They see it as an easier process for them. A card-signing process may sound innocuous, but there's nothing secret or private about obtaining those cards. Union organizers can confront an employee at work, at home, at a daughter's soccer game, at an Illini tailgate, at the Tumble Inn-anywhere. And these face-to-face confrontations can be annoying or even contentious. One hopes that union organizers are always pleasant with employees, but theirs is a bottom-line profession. Organizers are under pressure to get signed cards.
 
That leaves the card check process open to interference and intimidation. Due to this inevitable coercion, employees might make choices they don't sincerely-and privately-want. Spread across a staggering national economy, a great deal of unwanted union representation from EFCA could have an astonishing impact on employers.
 
Organized labor says card check is needed because employers currently intimidate or fire employees seeking to join a union, despite a host of federal laws prohibiting such activity.  Even accepting Labor's questionable premise that all employers are fear-mongers during unions drives, how would replacing employer coercion with union coercion be an improvement for workers?
 
Labor also claims EFCA will not take away the secret ballot from employees, and employees can get a ballot if they want one. But this is needlessly misleading. After collecting a majority of cards from workers, unions-not employees-would choose whether or not to hold an election.  Unions will a great deal of incentive to ignore the secret ballot rights of employees every time.
 
If lawmakers sought an opinion from rank-and-file union members, and not paid organizers, they might be surprised. In a poll taken in January, 88 percent of union employees said they thought ratification should be a private decision. Only 8 percent preferred card check.
 
Furthermore, several heavyweights have recently objected to the card check provision, from labor champion Sen. George McGovern to Warren Buffet to the CEOs of more "progressive" companies Costco, Starbucks and Whole Foods.
 
But organized labor is choosing to ignore its own members and make the EFCA its number-one priority in Washington. It sees the bill as the key to a labor revival in America. Organizers are joyful with anticipation: There are more union advocates in Congress now, and President Obama has promised to sign the EFCA if it reaches his desk.
 
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), a pivotal vote on labor issues and previous supporter of EFCA, recently announced he will oppose the measure this year.  This is good news for employees and employers, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Specter's decision will not "make the bill go away."
 
Make no mistake, labor organizations have served an important role in America's economy for decades.  While American employees deserve the freedom to choose or reject a union, they also deserve the privacy of that decision.  Losing the privilege of secret-ballot elections for union representation is an erosion of privacy, and a threat to a civilized workplace.
 
Oddly, the proposed "Employee Free Choice Act" would actually deny employees their free choice. With this level of deception, it is no wonder why most people outside the Beltway can't stand politics.
 
Michael K. Layman is manager of Labor and Employment Policy at the Society for Human Resource Management, the world's largest HR organization, based in Alexandria, VA.  He is a native of Champaign.