Unions failed in their drive to take away workers' right to vote on forming a union. Now they want the National Labor Relations Board to rule that such votes don't matter.

Seven labor unions have asked the board to force companies to negotiate with unions even when a majority of workers vote against the union. The board should refuse and stick to current law.

Federal law requires companies to recognize and negotiate with a union when a majority of employees vote to allow the union to represent them. The problem for unions is that workers haven't been making that choice.

Union membership in the private sector is down to 7.4 percent, a quarter of what it was in the 1950s. That means less money and less clout for unions. Increasing that membership is the top priority for labor leaders.

That's why they had been pushing a law in Congress that would have taken the right to a secret ballot election away from workers. There is usually a two-step process to forming a union. Workers sign cards stating they support the union. Then there is a secret ballot election in which all workers vote on the union.

Labor leaders wanted the process stopped at the card signing. That way organizers and union-sympathetic workers could pressure their colleagues into signing, and workers would never have a chance to vote their real concerns in secret.

The Senate properly refused to take the right to vote away from workers. Now the unions are asking the National Labor Relations Board to require employers to negotiate with the union even if only a minority of workers signs cards or votes for the union. In other words, if workers have to be allowed to vote, let them vote but disregard the result.

The unions say these minority unions would only negotiate on behalf of their members, but employers won't be willing to have two sets of benefits and pay scales.

These tactics shouldn't be necessary. Unions ought to be able to make a successful appeal to workers without going to these lengths. In uncertain economic times, when workers are laid off more quickly than they have been in the past and employers are considering cuts in benefits, unions should be able to campaign on the basis of what they will do for workers.

If they can't win members based on such an appeal, they shouldn't be able to organize them based on any other tactic.