The average American's support of labor unions crept up this year from an all-time low, but still only slightly more than half favor the existence of labor unions.
That's the latest from a Gallup poll conducted just before Labor Day. During the recession, union approval fell to 48 percent — the lowest since 1936, when Gallup began asking Americans how they felt about labor unions. This year, unions got a 53 percent approval rating, a 38 percent disapproval rating, and a shrug of the shoulders from the other 9 percent.
Party affiliation yielded the anticipated results: 77 percent of Democrats approve of unions; 47 percent of self-identifying Independent voters approve; and 32 percent of Republicans approve of labor unions.
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The right-to-work issue is one where folks haven't changed their opinions too much. In 1957, 62 percent of those surveyed said they would vote in favor of an open shop or right-to-work law, which allow workers to hold down a job in a workplace where a union represents workers without having to join the union. Today, 71 percent said they'd vote for such a law.
Gallup had this to say about right-to-work laws: "Although Americans widely favor right-to-work laws, only about half of the states have passed such laws. The right-to-work debate is ongoing in states like Ohio and Wisconsin, and New Mexico and Kentucky may adopt those laws if Republicans win control of the legislatures in those states in the next election.
"The evidence for whether right-to-work laws are a net positive or net negative to states is mixed. On the one hand, consistent with the arguments of proponents, right-to-work states do appear to attract more business than states without such laws. On the other hand, consistent with the arguments of proponents, workers in right-to-work states appear to be worse off in terms of pay and benefits than workers in other states."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
