According to data from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), in 38% of all union recognitions in 2009, the latest year for which data is available, unions bypassed secret ballot elections and instead used card checks to unionize employees. Specifically, the NLRB reports that unions won 794 single-union representation elections. During that period, the NLRB recorded 485 notices of card check union recognition.

Currently, unions can bypass secret ballot elections by using paid labor organizers to persuade workers to sign “card check” agreements authorizing union representation. Following that, they can pressure companies to “voluntarily” accept a card check recognition of the union. Unions’ pressure tactics run from paid picketers to political fights to brand attacks and much more. Union front groups are common, as are bogus attacks by other community groups on the union’s payroll.

Unions’ overall modus operandi is to blackmail a business by escalating pressure tactics until it capitulates to the card check. The process is unregulated, and anecdotal evidence suggests that signed agreement cards are often obtained through deception, coercion, and intimidation of employees.

By requiring a federally supervised secret ballot election, unions and employers could not agree to deny employees the right to vote in private.