There were charges of secrecy leveled at the 1.7 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Unite Here in recent days after The Wall Street Journal reported that the two major unions reached confidential agreements with two large businesses about methods used to organize employees.

The agreements – which remain secret – allow the companies to say which locations and the number of workers the unions can try to organize, the Journal reported.

The employers are Sodexho Inc. and the Compass Group USA unit of London-based Compass Group PLC, according to the newspaper.

This comes as the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that would allow unions to organize employees by workers simply signing cards backing a union rather than the more traditional use of secret ballots.

It appears that individual employees are losing their individual voices in a flurry of anti-democratic activity. For decades, the decision to go with union membership was confidential. There are many good reasons why it should remain secret. The most fundamental reason is an employee – not a union, not an employer – should be able to decide by himself or herself whether union affiliation is beneficial.

While it’s true that secret agreements such as the ones involving the SEIU and Unite Here may lead to an increase in national union membership, the method is hardly justified. It may be good for the union and its leadership but it doesn’t appear to be good for the employees they claim to represent.