Secret Ballot Watch

The secret ballot is important not only to people in the United States. It’s important around the world, too.

In New Zealand, National MP Tau Henare, a former union organizer, recently proposed a bill to make use of the secret ballot the official law in the island nation near Australia. The New Zealand Herald gives details of Henare’s measure here:    

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“Unions will be legally bound to hold a secret ballot for their members to approve a strike under a measure National MP Tau Henare has proposed to stop worker intimidation. …

“He said unions had nothing to fear from the measure, as many took a secret ballot for strike already. He was simply hoping to codify this in law.

“He said a ‘hands-up’ vote made it all too easy to get people to vote a simple way.

“‘You can intimidate pretty easily like that. You don't have to get in their face or stand over them. Just being there can do it.’”

Gower, “Bill offers veil of secrecy for votes on strike action,” The New Zealand Herald, 09.25.09 

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It’s too bad that many major American unions don’t respect the secret ballot as much as their Kiwi counterparts. Their support of the Employee Free Choice Act is proof of that: It sets aside the secret ballot for union organizing in favor of the public majority sign-up, a method that promotes the intimidation that Henare is trying to prevent.

But Henare isn’t the only legislator trying to preserve the secret ballot. Many U.S. lawmakers are trying to protect the secret ballot as well. You can read more about it here.

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