As Trump and Republican Congress pummel unions, the more people rise in support
Jon Queally for Common Dreams
A new poll reveals that Americans continue to support
organized labor at historic levels, even as the Trump administration and its
Republican allies in Congress take a battering ram to union rights and the
nation's working class.
Winning the long, tough strike at Butler Hospital showed
what strong unions can do
Gallup's annual survey, released Thursday, shows more than two-thirds of people in the US (68%) approve of labor unions and the economic security and prosperity they provide working families. The popular support matches record-high numbers of recent years after a long decline from the 1960s through the early 2000s.
As Gallup notes:
When Gallup first measured Americans’ ratings of labor
unions in 1936, 72% approved. Approval reached the record high, 75%, in 1953
and 1957 and ranged between 63% and 73% from 1958 through 1967. Then, from 1972
through 2016, approval was lower, with few readings over 60%, including the 48%
all-time low recorded in 2009. This was the only time approval fell below the
majority level. Since 2017, approval has been above 60%, the longest period at
this level since the 1960s.
