<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head profile="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> <title>Doug Henwood Talks » Blog Archive » union approval</title> <meta name="generator" content="WordPress 2.2.2" /> <!-- leave this for stats --> <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://henwood.blogspace.com/wp-content/themes/plain/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="http://henwood.blogspace.com/?feed=rss2" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/xml" title="RSS .92" href="http://henwood.blogspace.com/?feed=rss" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 0.3" href="http://henwood.blogspace.com/?feed=atom" /> <link rel="pingback" href="http://henwood.blogspace.com/xmlrpc.php" /> <link rel='archives' title='September 2007' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200709' /> <link rel='archives' title='August 2007' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200708' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2007' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200707' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2007' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200706' /> <link rel='archives' title='May 2007' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200705' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2007' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200704' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2007' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200703' /> <link rel='archives' title='February 2007' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200702' /> <link rel='archives' title='January 2007' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200701' /> <link rel='archives' title='December 2006' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200612' /> <link rel='archives' title='November 2006' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200611' /> <link rel='archives' title='October 2006' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200610' /> <link rel='archives' title='September 2006' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200609' /> <link rel='archives' title='August 2006' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200608' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2006' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200607' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2006' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200606' /> <link rel='archives' title='May 2006' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200605' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2006' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200604' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2006' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200603' /> <link rel='archives' title='February 2006' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200602' /> <link rel='archives' title='January 2006' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200601' /> <link rel='archives' title='December 2005' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200512' /> <link rel='archives' title='November 2005' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200511' /> <link rel='archives' title='October 2005' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200510' /> <link rel='archives' title='September 2005' href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?m=200509' /> <link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="http://henwood.blogspace.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd" /> </head> <body> <div id="page"> <div id="header"> <div id="headerimg"> <h1><a href="http://henwood.blogspace.com">Doug Henwood Talks</a></h1> <!-- <div class="description">Just another WordPress weblog</div>--> </div> </div> <hr noshade size="3" /> <div id="content" class="widecolumn"> <div class="navigation"> <div class="alignleft">« <a href="http://henwood.blogspace.com/?p=3532">Re: more Foucault</a></div> <div class="alignright"><a href="http://henwood.blogspace.com/?p=3534">Re: In the Know</a> »</div> </div> <div class="post" id="post-3533"> <h2><a href="http://henwood.blogspace.com/?p=3533" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: union approval">union approval</a></h2> <div class="entrytext"> <p>[I don’t think it requires a subscription to get the full report,<br /> where there are tables, graphs, and a full history going back to<br /> 1936: <a href="http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=24343">http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=24343</a>.]</p> <p>September 01, 2006 Most Americans Approve of Labor Unions Say unions benefit the economy, union workers</p> <p>by Lydia Saad GALLUP NEWS SERVICE</p> <p>PRINCETON, NJ — AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is making the case<br /> this Labor Day for a change of power in Congress and for expanding<br /> the labor movement. Sweeney heralds new census statistics that show<br /> real median earnings for working Americans falling in recent years at<br /> the same time that the U.S. economy, worker productivity, and<br /> corporate profits have grown. The challenging backdrop for Sweeney’s<br /> campaign is that, according to Gallup’s annual Work and Education<br /> survey, only 9% of Americans say they belong to a union. At the same<br /> time, most Americans approve of unions and applaud the job they do<br /> for their members.</p> <p>Labor Day was first observed more than 100 years ago, and most states<br /> were quick to recognize it as an official holiday. That momentum is a<br /> distant memory today as only 13% of working Americans tell Gallup<br /> that they personally belong to a labor union, and just 17% of all<br /> Americans report living in a household in which at least one person<br /> belongs to a union. These figures are down sharply from reported<br /> figures from the mid-20th century, when more than 30% of U.S. workers<br /> belonged to a union. Even as recently as 1983, more than 20% were<br /> members.</p> <p>Public reaction to labor unions is one of the longest running trends<br /> The Gallup Poll maintains. The question “Do you approve or disapprove<br /> of labor unions?” was first asked in 1936, a year after Congress<br /> passed the Wagner Act establishing the right of most private-sector<br /> employees to join unions, to bargain collectively with their<br /> employers, and to strike. That first poll found 72% of Americans<br /> approving of unions and only 20% disapproving.</p> <p>Broad support has been maintained ever since, although to varying<br /> degrees. Approval of unions was greatest in the 1950s (coincident<br /> with the peak of union membership in the United States), when the<br /> approval figure reached 75%. The low point was 55%, recorded in the<br /> late 1970s and early 1980s. Today, perceptions of labor unions are<br /> still positive but on the lower end of the range, with 59% approving<br /> and 29% disapproving.</p> <p>There is some variation in public support for unions, particularly<br /> based on political orientation. Three in four Democrats (76%), but<br /> only 42% of Republicans, say they approve of labor unions. Consistent<br /> with geographic patterns in partisanship, approval is higher in the<br /> East (67%) and West (64%) than in the Midwest (57%) or South (52%).<br /> Lower-income Americans are more supportive than either middle- or<br /> upper-income Americans.</p> <p>Most Consider Unions a Positive</p> <p>Despite labor’s small membership base today, most Americans not only<br /> approve of labor unions but also believe unions are generally helpful<br /> to workers who are union members, helpful to companies where workers<br /> are organized, and helpful to the economy. Only when it comes to the<br /> interests of non-unionized workers does a majority of Americans<br /> believe unions are harmful.</p> <p>Seven in 10 Americans (71%) believe unions mostly help unionized<br /> workers, while 21% think they mostly hurt them. At least half of<br /> Americans also believe unions are mostly helpful to the companies<br /> where workers are unionized (50%) and to the U.S. economy in general<br /> (53%). However, only 33% of Americans believe unions mostly help<br /> workers who are not unionized; the majority (51%) say unions mostly<br /> hurt these workers. None of these attitudes has changed appreciably<br /> since first measured in 2001.</p> <p>Naturally, adults living in union households are more positive than<br /> members of non-union households about the value of unions on all of<br /> these dimensions. Still, a solid majority of those in non-union<br /> households believe that unions are mostly beneficial to union workers.</p> <p>Who Belongs?</p> <p>Approximately one in eight working adults in the United States (13%)<br /> belongs to a labor union, which translates into 9% of all Americans.<br /> Union membership skews heavily toward government-sector jobs, in<br /> large part because of teachers’ unions.</p> <p>Only 16% of all U.S. workers surveyed by Gallup are employed by the<br /> government at any level (federal, state, or local), compared with 39%<br /> of unionized workers.</p> <p class="postmetadata alt"> <small> This entry was posted on Friday, September 1st, 2006 at 11:53 am and is filed under <a href="http://henwood.blogspace.com/?cat=1" title="View all posts in Uncategorized" rel="category">Uncategorized</a>. You can follow any responses to this entry through the <a href='http://henwood.blogspace.com/?feed=rss2&p=3533'>RSS 2.0</a> feed. 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