Gallup on unions

[Seth Ackerman]

> *	Striking Telephone Workers
> A reported 85,000 organized telephone operators and technicians walked off
> the job this weekend over wage and job security disputes with New
> York-based
> Verizon Communications -- the nation's largest local telephone company.
> How
> do Americans feel about labor unions, and more specifically, strikes?  One
> of the Gallup Poll's longest running trends, dating back to 1936, has
> consistently found widespread public support for labor unions.  Most
> recently Gallup finds this support at 65%, with only 28% disapproving.
> However, when asked whose side they have tended to favor in labor disputes
> in recent years, only 45% say they have tended to side with labor, while
> nearly as many, 37%, say they have tended to side with the companies
> involved.  Gallup finds 18% of Americans living in households where one or
> more worker is unionized.  Just 13% report being a member of a labor
> union.
> Americans are divided roughly in thirds in terms of their preference for
> the
> future of labor unions.  Thirty percent would like to see the influence of
> unions increase, 32% would like to see their influence decrease, while 36%
> would like to see their influence maintained at the current level.
> [August
> 24-26, 1999]
> 
>