Union membership vs secret ballot

Employers, trade unions and their members know that according to long established practices sole recognition is determined when a trade union proves that it has achieved the 50 per cent plus one threshold of union membership and not simply by ballot preferences.

Secret ballots can only prove workers' preferences at the ballot box, and definitely not paid-up trade union membership.

Unlike political democracy, 'industrial democracy' does not come easy and is achieved at a very direct cost to workers - that of paid-up trade union membership. This is a democratic right that smart trade union members cherish, for they realise that the secret ballot system would ironically give non-union members the opportunity to determine which union represents the workforce at that particular place of work.

While I fully agree that present legislation and practices need reforming, I believe that trade unions would do a disservice to their paid-up members if they give away their hard-won right for a secret ballot system.

If this is allowed to happen, it would be detrimental to local industrial relations and particularly to the trade union movement.