BY JULIA CIARLO HAMMOND Unions haven't really been an issue in Virginia, but that would change if Big Labor gets Congress to pass a law making it easier for them to organize.

It wouldn't matter that we're a right-to-work state with one of the country's lowest membership rates -- 3.7 percent, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

If the union bosses get their way, membership would grow as workers are robbed of the right to cast secret ballots on whether to organize.

Instead, the unions want something called "card check." Union bosses want the power to organize a workplace simply by "persuading" a majority of workers to sign a card. Union organizers could approach workers in the parking lot or even at home and bully them into the signing cards.

Once the union had enough signatures, a business would have no choice but to sign a contract. If the two parties couldn't come to terms within a set number of days, a federal bureaucrat would step in and dictate wages and other benefits.

IT'S ENCOURAGING that a majority of Americans think this is a really bad idea.

Last year, when the issue was last before Congress, a survey by the respected Virginia-based polling firm McLaughlin & Associates found that almost four in five voters opposed card-check legislation that would have the government dictate wages and benefits if employers couldn't come to terms with the unions on their own.

But despite the overwhelming public opposition, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the so-called Employee Free Choice Act by a vote of 241-185. In the Senate, supporters failed to get the 60 votes needed to end debate and allow a vote on the bill. Still, the vote was 51 for ending debate and 48 against.

Big Labor, though, isn't giving up. Card check is still high on Big Labor's political agenda, and depending on who wins in November, labor may be even stronger than it was last time around.

As state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, Virginia's leading small business association, I am especially concerned about what all this means to small, family-owned businesses.

People seem to think that anyone who owns a business is rich, but there's a big difference between an auto plant and a repair shop. Our members aren't rich -- some do better than others, but most of them are simply trying to make a decent living.

The truth is, small business owners work for a living. They do the books, but they also sweep up and take out the trash. They're struggling with everything from higher fuel costs to finding -- and keeping -- affordable health insurance. Small business owners take pride in the work they do and in treating their employees fairly. They're not making piles of money, but they believe in taking care of the people who work for them.

IF BIG LABOR and some members of Congress have their way, these small businesses -- and the people who work for them -- would have unions shoved down their throats.

If the unions and federal bureaucrats get to decide how much a small business pays its employees and what benefits it gives them, small business owners are going to have to make some tough decisions.

They're going to have to decide whether they can afford to grow. They're going to have to decide whether they can afford to add jobs. They're going to have decide whether they can even afford to stay in business.

I'm not defending greedy business owners who reap big profits on the backs of workers, but we must defend small, family-owned businesses from organized labor.

Secret ballots are a sacred part of the democratic process. It's how we elect the president and Congress, the governor and Virginia's General Assembly. Let's not throw it away simply to prop up the unions.
Julia Ciarlo Hammond is state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, Virginia's leading small business association.