House Democrats have voted to deny Americans one of our most precious rights -- the right to a secret ballot election. With Thursday's passage of the misleadingly named "Employee Free Choice Act," workers will no longer be able to vote privately on whether or not they want to be represented by a union.

The secret ballot is at the core of our democracy. Last November, the Democrats gained the majority in Congress in an election conducted by secret ballot, acknowledged as the fairest way to carry out an election. The freedom and right to hold privately a personal belief, opinion or decision is at the heart of what makes this nation great. Taking away this right and stripping workers of their freedom to choose is unfair.

Proponents of the Employee Free Choice Act, including the Communist Party U.S.A., the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (the latter two are major donors to the Democratic Party and to Democratic candidates), argue that it will free workers from employer pressure against organizing a union. They say employees are so intimidated by their employers that they are no longer guaranteed the right to organize. This is simply not true. Union membership in California has remained unchanged over the last eight years. With 2.3 million members, California has the highest union membership in the country.

The Employee Free Choice Act actually makes legal the intimidation tactics used by union organizers. By denying workers their right to a private ballot, and instead forcing a system that uses a non-secret "card-check," workers are left exposed and will be easily identified as not supportive of joining a union. Once identified, these workers are often subjected to coercion, threats and bullying. They are terrorized by union organizers and other employees before, during and after work hours, in both work and non-work areas, and even at their homes, until they agree to join the union.

In 2001, Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, the author of the Employee Free Choice Act and chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, led 15 Democratic members of Congress in signing a letter urging "the use (of) the secret ballot in all union recognition elections," and stating that "the secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose," because they were so concerned with protecting workers from intimidation. However, this letter was addressed not to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, but to Mexican labor officials. The employees they were trying to protect were not American workers, but Mexican. It appears that Chairman Miller is more concerned with protecting the rights of workers in foreign countries than safeguarding the freedoms of American citizens.

Even large labor groups agree that secret ballot elections are essential to worker protection. These groups have made their positions known, as the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police wrote this week in a letter to Speaker Pelosi: "The only way to guarantee worker protection from coercion and intimidation is through the continued use of a federally supervised private ballot election so that personal decisions about whether to join a union remain private."

America's workers are essential to our nation's economic progress and success. They should not be forced to be exposed to intimidation in the workplace, and they deserve the right to take part in a secret ballot election. Big Labor opened their wallets for the Democrats in the last election and it is unfortunate that their reward comes at the expense of the rights of working Americans.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, represents the 49th Congressional District, which covers much of North County and Southwest Riverside County, including Oceanside, Vista, Fallbrook and Lake Elsinore.