Unionizing

Yes but if the voting were open then the employer could punish those that voted for a union. I worked at one place where we were threatened that anyone talking to a union would be fired on the spot. Of course such threats are technically illegal, but that doesn't mean the threats carry no weight. I think 99% of the time Unions are a waist, however Unions do have their place. Ideally the secret voting should be truly secret, as in neither the union nor the company has any idea who voted for what.

More and more, it seems to me, I am seeing intimidation as a tool in politics and the 'powers that be'..

Unions have always used scare tactics and intimidation to get people to join. In many case the Union dues are more than the raised the people get every year. The Union has become an over grown business that needs new money to continue or face many people losing high paying easy jobs. No secret ballot makes it easier to get a Union formed and get new money for the Union to hire and reward the party faithful.

Hello ParaTed, Excellent question! To to your question: Unions are afraid of irrelevance!!! U.S. Labor Laws are such theses days that the function of labor unions as a protection against employer abuses is a thing of the past. Once upon a time labor unions were a very, very good thing. That is no longer the case. Today, virtually every USA union is or has been challenged by its membership on issues of corruption. Unfortunately, the purview of the union labor complaints is handled by a severely understaffed division of the Dept. of Labor. In reaction to their dwindling membership, which equates to their dwindling membership dues, and particularly since the union P.A.C. (political action committee) legal challenges, they have undertaken all manner of schemes to keep themselves alive, and able to continue to meet their financial obligations. Unions face the burden to continue to pay out the costs of membership training, retirement and health & welfare benefits. These obligations have been challenged by poor economic performance of the markets, although specifically poor investment choices. Now, so much of the money has been piddled away -- not so unlike the Social Security program, which was the model for union benefits. For example: My husband is a union member. His 401K retirement plan has earned, less than 1/2% interest, averaged over the last three years. The average 3-5 year return was only approx. 1%. That's no better than Social Security! The reasons that the returns were so lousy was because of the investment choices of the union board leadership, and the corrupt 'giveaway' of union member funds to crooked investment professionals. Add to that the negative perception of unions these days, based on the damage that their collective bargaining demands have caused. There is no way that any corporation should have ever agreed to pay workers' health & welfare benefits after separation from the workforce of the corporation. What a stupid thing to agree to. These costs alone have severely restricted the financial stability of both the airline and the auto industries. And, let's make no mistake about it, if Unions didn't have the power of the DNC behind them, and the legislative strong-arming that Congressional Reps on the Hill have issued, then industry in the USA would be healthier today -- as would America's perception of Unions. Geesh, how can any American today not think of Jimmy Hoffa, and 'cement shoes' when he or she thinks about unionized labor. As I see it, the short answer is that Unions have become desperate. That is why they're using more obvious strong-arm tactics to deliver themselves to a position of returned relevance. Below is an excerpt from an economic overview of Unions today. Please note the significant, and steady decline of membership. Therein lies the heart of the answer to your question. "The changing conditions of the 1980s and 1990s undermined the position of organized labor, which now represented a shrinking share of the work force. While more than one-third of employed people belonged to unions in 1945, union membership fell to 24.1 percent of the U.S. work force in 1979 and to 13.9 percent in 1998. Dues increases, continuing union contributions to political campaigns, and union members' diligent voter-turnout efforts kept unions' political power from ebbing as much as their membership. But court decisions and National Labor Relations Board rulings allowing workers to withhold the portion of their union dues used to back, or oppose, political candidates, undercut unions' influence." http://economics.about.com/od/laborinamerica/a/union_decline.htm