<http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=28570>
August 31, 2007 Sixty Percent of Americans Approve of Labor Unions Little changed in recent years
by Joseph Carroll GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's annual Work and Education survey finds little change during the past several years in Americans' opinions about labor unions, with 60% of Americans now approving of unions. Less than one in five Americans say labor unions in this country will become stronger in the future, and only about one in three say they would like to see labor unions have more influence. The percentage of Americans who say they want unions to have more influence is on the high end of what Gallup has measured in the past eight years, but down slightly after peaking in 2006. Only about 1 in 10 Americans say they personally belong to a labor union.
Public Approval of Labor Unions
According to the Aug. 13-16, 2007, poll, 60% of Americans say they approve of labor unions, while 32% disapprove. The public's approval rating of labor unions has not shown much significant change in the past four years. From a longer term perspective, a majority of Americans have consistently approved of labor unions since Gallup first asked this question more than 70 years ago in 1936 (making this one of Gallup's longest-running trend questions). The highpoint in approval occurred in the mid-1950s, with a 75% rating in 1953 and again in 1957. The low point was 55% in 1979 and 1981.
Since Americans' overall approval of unions has shown little change in recent years, Gallup combined the results of its past three surveys -- from August 2005, August 2006, and August 2007 -- to better understand which groups of Americans are more inclined than others to positively assess labor unions.
Overall, these results show that 9% of Americans are personally members of a labor union. Another 7% have a spouse or other household members who belong to a union.
As would be expected, labor union approval is much higher among those residing in union households (82%) than those who are not living in union households (55%).
Labor unions have historically been aligned with the Democratic Party, and the current analysis underscores this relationship. Twenty- two percent of Democrats reside in a labor union household, compared with 17% of independents and 12% of Republicans. Further, Democrats (78%) across the country are significantly more likely than independents (58%) or Republicans (41%) to say they approve of labor unions.
The Future of Unions
The poll also updated trends that ask Americans about the future strength and influence of unions in this country.
Just 19% of Americans say labor unions will be stronger in the future than they are today, while 45% say they will be weaker and 31% say they will be the same as today. Perceptions that unions will become stronger in the future have gradually declined since this question was first asked in 1999; but still, the highest percentage of Americans ever saying that unions would become stronger was 25% (in 1999).
Americans residing in union households are more likely than those living in non-union households to say unions will be stronger in the future -- which is not surprising -- but a plurality of both groups say unions will be weaker.
Nearly half of Republicans say unions will be weaker in the future. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say unions will be stronger in the future, but still only 26% of Democrats share that view.
When asked about their own preferences, 35% of Americans say they would like to see labor unions in this country have more influence than they currently have today, while 28% say less influence and 33% say the same amount of influence. Last year marked the high point in public preferences for more influential unions (38%), but even with a slight decline this year, support for more influential unions is on the high end of what Gallup has observed since 1999.
A slim majority of those residing in union households (52%) say they would like unions to have more influence in the future; only 32% of those in non-union households say this.
More than half of Democrats believe unions should have more influence in the future, something with which only 16% of Republicans agree.
Survey Methods
Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,019 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Aug. 13-16, 2007. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.