A common question that comes up when I talk to people about the Employee Free Choice Act, a law that would effectively rob workers of the right to a secret ballot election for workplace unionization (more background here), is “Why would unions push for such an unpopular policy?”  After all, most Americans value privacy, especially when it comes to elections.  My best guess is as follows: workers have increasingly rejected unionization in the last few decades as the economy has become more fluid and dynamic (see declining union membership numbers, as evidence). Wal-Mart employees have repeatedly rejected unionization efforts, for example.  Since organized labor has largely failed to win workers over to their side, they now think the path of least resistance to increasing their membership rosters is to scrap elections all together.