Labor Day Finds Continued Strong Support for Unions

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ - It's the bottom of the ninth inning, and lawyers for 22 Major League Baseball umpires have struck out in their bid to keep the umpires calling balls and strikes. In a decision announced Wednesday evening, the 22 umpires will lose their jobs, but will be paid through the end of the season while an arbitrator considers whether they should be brought back for next season. The 22 umpires were part of an ill-fated attempt to jump-start negotiations on a new contract. However, baseball chose to accept their resignations after most of the umpires attempted to back away when it became obvious that Major League Baseball would not give in.

The baseball controversy is just one of several labor disputes making headlines as America prepares to celebrate the Labor Day weekend. Boeing faces a possible strike by its largest union, the International Association of Machinists, and public school teachers are on strike in Detroit in a dispute over pay and working conditions.

Union Membership Small, but Support for Unions is Large
While just 13% of Americans are personally members of labor unions, a new Gallup poll on labor issues conducted August 24-26 shows that 65% of Americans approve of labor unions, not that different from the 72% of Americans who approved of labor unions when Gallup first asked the question over 60 years ago in 1936. A majority of Americans have in fact answered in the affirmative every time the labor union approval question has been asked in the years since. At the same time, however, this generalized approval of unions doesn't automatically translate into favoring the labor side in strikes and other work actions. When asked where their sympathies generally lie in labor disputes over the last two or three years, 45% of Americans pick unions, compared to 37% who choose the companies involved in those disputes. Those results are comparable to Gallup data from 1952, when slightly more than four out of 10 Americans favored unions over companies.

An interesting note: While the typical stereotype of union members is one of factory or construction workers, Gallup's findings show a different picture. Thirty percent of government employees belong to unions, compared to 10% of private sector employees, and the largest percentage of union members earn between $30-50,000 annually (11%). And, of those Americans who do belong to labor unions, 79% say they are satisfied with the way their unions represent their interests. This compares to 21% who say they are dissatisfied.

Unions Show Limited Potential for Membership Growth
The majority of non-union workers in the U.S. are content to remain that way, but of those Americans who are employed full-time and not members of labor unions, about one in five -- 21% -- say they would like to belong to a union. This support is highest among younger workers between the ages of 18-29 -- 30% of the workers in that age group agree with the idea of joining a union. Support is also higher among working-class Americans, with 32% of those earning less than $20,000 annually expressing support for joining a union.

However, non-union workers are split over whether a union would improve their employment situation. Thirty-six percent believe their working conditions would improve with union membership, while 38% believe conditions would be worse and 18% say it would make no difference.

Will Unions Gain More Influence?
Americans are deeply split on the issue of whether or not labor unions should have more or less influence in the years ahead. Thirty percent of Americans would like to see unions have more influence than they do today, while 32% would like to see them have less influence. That leaves another third of Americans who prefer the status quo. Americans are also pessimistic about the future of unions. When asked about the future of organized labor, 44% of those polled believe unions will eventually become weaker than they are today, while 25% predict they will gain in strength and another 28% believe they will stay the same as they are today.

Survey Methods
The results below are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,028 adults, 18 years and older, conducted August 24-26, 1999. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 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.

Do you approve or disapprove of labor unions?

In the labor disputes of the last two or three years, have your sympathies, in general been -- [ROTATE: on the side of unions (or), on the side of the companies]?

Would you, personally, like to belong to a labor union at work, or not?
BASED ON -- 562 -- NON-UNION, EMPLOYED FULL-TIME/PART-TIME; ± 5 PCT PTS