While the U.S. has pursued a policy of spreading the benefits of democracy abroad by whatever means necessary during the Bush administration's two terms in office, at both the federal level and now here in Hawai'i our lawmakers appear determined to strike down the application of one of our most fundamental of democratic principles — the right of employees to vote by secret ballot in choosing whether or not to be represented by a collective bargaining agent. The secret ballot has been mandated in labor elections since the National Labor Relations Act was passed in the 1935.

Today, pending federal legislation, deceptively titled "the employee free choice act," is being used by our own Legislature as a model for "streamlining" and "leveling the playing field" to facilitate unionization of the workforce here in Hawai'i, at the expense of that balloting process.

In its place would be a petition or "card check" system that would allow a simple majority of signers in an employee group to "certify" a bargaining representative when there are no other competing individuals or labor organizations seeking to represent employees.

The rationale sounds simple enough — why bother to hold an election when there is no competition? But this ignores the fact that employees may never hear the employer's side of the story and may not want to be represented by a union at all. This is a choice a worker will only be able to express by refusing to sign the petition. There is no place to vote "no" in a petition or "card check" process.

The Hawai'i bills do not make any provision for neutral supervision of the proposed petition process or verification of whether or not the signatures obtained were freely given.

Lacking confidentiality, employees may for any number of reasons feel compelled to sign a petition personally circulated by an agent of management or a labor organization, to protect their jobs or relationships with their peers.

Furthermore, the legislative language specifically precludes the use of a secret ballot to subsequently validate petition results by mandating that the Hawai'i labor relations board shall not direct an election if a petition signed by a simple majority is submitted.

No case has been made for the argument that the playing field is now tipped in favor of management, that Hawai'i workers are being hindered by management from affiliating with labor organizations, or that the current system of choosing bargaining representation is broken. The same basic framework for workers organizing and choosing a bargaining agent has been in place for decades. If the percentage of the workforce affiliated with labor organizations across the country is declining, it is because those organizations are having a difficult time selling employees on their claims of better job security, wages and benefits for union workers.

For more than 70 years, the National Labor Relations Board's rules and procedures for determining employee labor affiliation and collective bargaining representation have resulted in a fair and winning solution for labor, management and employees. The legislative majority's apparent intention to abandon the time-honored and fundamental democratic principle of the secret ballot in order to garner continued political support by union interests is unwarranted and an affront to the rights of employees throughout the state of Hawai'i.

Karl F. Borgstrom is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Hawaii. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.