American Unions Have Way More Work to Do to Restore Public Approval
August 31st, 2011by Glynn Wilson
Even in a year when American unions started to stand up and fight back against conservative political attacks for the first time in many years, a slim majority of Americans, 52 percent, say they approve of labor unions. The number remains unchanged from last year and is on the lower end of what Gallup has measured historically, which proves that labor unions have a lot more work to do to make up ground with the American public.
Gallup has asked Americans whether they approve or disapprove of labor unions periodically since 1936, annually since 2001. Americans have always approved more than disapproved of organized labor in general, with the lowest approval rating of 48 percent measured in 2009, not surprisingly after eight years of union bashing by the Bush administration and other Republican candidates for governor, Congress and state legislatures.
In fact, labor has been on the butt end of Republican criticism since Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, and neither collectively or individually have they figured out a way to counter the anti-union message.
The record-high time for unions came in the 1950s, when two separate measurements showed that 75 percent of Americans approved of unions and collective bargaining rights for workers, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject.
Labor unions came into sharp focus earlier this year during the much-publicized standoff between Wisconsin Republicans, led by Gov. Scott Walker, and Democrats, over legislation that cut state employee benefits and limited the scope of what public unions could bargain for, as Gallup says in its analysis. In recent weeks, nine members of Wisconsin’s legislature faced recall elections, with two Republicans being voted out of office.
Several other states’ governments have made efforts this year to cut public employee worker pay or benefits, or limit unions’ collective bargaining powers.
“All the discussion of union rights versus state obligations seems to have resulted in a draw in the court of public opinion, with labor unions neither gaining nor losing Americans’ support overall compared with last year,” Gallup says. But the activity has restored the approval of labor unions with active Democrats.
Partisan Gap in Labor Union Approval Widens
The events of this year do appear to have widened an already large divide in the way partisans view labor unions, according to Gallup. Now, 78 percent of Democrats and 26 percent of Republicans approve, a difference of 52 percentage points, compared with a 37-point gap last year. Democratic approval is now restored to the levels seen from 1999 to 2007, while Republican approval has dipped to the lowest point seen over this period.
Union Members and Households Approve of Unions
Americans who live in a household with at least one union member — 17 percent of U.S. households, according to the poll — are, not surprisingly, highly supportive of labor unions, with 73 percent approving. Those who live in non-union households are about equally divided between approval (48 percent) and disapproval (46 percent). These patterns are largely unchanged compared with last year.
Approval is high, but not universal, among the 10 percent of Americans (or 14 percent of employed Americans) who are themselves members of labor unions. Eighty-two percent of U.S. union members approve of labor unions this year.
The union membership figures are essentially the same as what Gallup measured in 2001, when 9 percent of Americans and 14 percent of workers claimed union membership. This suggests little change in union membership in the U.S. over the past decade.
Implications
While Americans’ views of labor unions have held steady since last year, with more approving than disapproving, Americans remain less approving than in the past. Further, there is a greater divergence this year in Republican and Democratic approval of unions.
“This could reflect a greater politicization of union issues given the fact that many state-level efforts to curb union influence were promoted by Republican governors often backed by a Republican-controlled legislature. As a result, Democrats, as in Wisconsin, tried to defeat the proposals through parliamentary maneuvering, with Republicans responding with their own maneuvers to pass the legislation,” according to Gallup.
“The recent elections in Wisconsin indicate a mixed public reaction to those efforts. Most of the elected officials in that state who faced recalls survived, allowing Republicans to maintain a majority in the state Senate, though that majority is now smaller.”
Further Analysis
The most important implication here is that while unions have made up some ground with Democrats and some members of the American public, they have a lot more work to do to fully restore their image in American society as compared to other institutions, including corporations, the government and the press.
Survey Methods
Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Aug. 11-14, 2011, with a random sample of 1,008 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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Tags: American Unions Have Way More Work to Do to Restore Public Approval, Gallup Poll
August 31st, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Unfortunately Unions have been their own worst enemy. I’m all for Labor Unions and Trade Unions; i’m in a Non-Trade Union myself: Industrial Workers of the World, but if you look at what the Union Bosses have done, much of it is selling out to the almighty Capitalists DOLLAR from kick backs on Health Care Ins to the corruption of Togetherness from scum bags like Andy Stern. below a link to a sample of where from i speak
http://labornotes.org/blogs/2010/07/seiu-buys-its-own-version-history
Unions have a long long way to go and they can start by supporting each others Union. They do not at this time in many places around the country have Sympatico rallies and strikes which really undermines the concept …yada
August 31st, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Granted, but it looks like they began waking up in Wisconsin, and that had a ripple effect across the country.
September 1st, 2011 at 9:09 am
Reared in a union household by parents also reared in union households, I have very strong opinions about the importance and necessity of unions. Unions began to lose clout in the 1960s for a variety of reasons, including the decline of traditional industrial jobs. That decline was further promoted by anti-union policies under Reagan and many state governments. Bush, of course, did not help, but the decline did not originate with his administration.
Unions need to re-invent themselves somehow. Back in the 1920s, unions in Oregon and elsewhere in West Coast ports engaged in a number of activities, notably consumer-producer cooperatives, that could, if revived today, not only help restore public affection but actually make a positive economic impact for working Americans.
September 1st, 2011 at 9:57 am
It seems to me they have no choice but to re-energize, considering the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC.
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But I think there is room for some creativity in how they do this. The biggest problem they face is the political divide between the management of unions, which tend to be Democrats, and rank and file members, who have gone to the dark side over the past 30 years.