Lydia Saad at Gallup:
Labor unions continue to enjoy high support in the U.S., with 67% of Americans approving of them, similar to the elevated level seen in recent years after more than a decade of rising support. Mirroring this trend, Americans have gradually become more likely than a decade ago to want unions’ influence to strengthen and to believe unions benefit various aspects of business and the economy.
In contrast to the incremental changes seen in U.S. adults’ support of unions over time, the new poll documents an unprecedented uptick since the prior measure, in 2018, in perceptions that unions in the country will become stronger in the future than they are today. A third of Americans (34%) believe this today, compared with 19% five years ago and no more than 25% at any time in the trend since 1999.
More than two-thirds of Americans support unions, according to new polling data the AFL-CIO released Tuesday.
Union support is particularly high among young Americans: 88 percent of Americans younger than 30, according to AFL-CIO data.
The public opinion research firm GBAO surveyed 1,200 registered voters between Aug. 1-8 on behalf of the AFL-CIO. Demographics were weighted and balanced to match the estimated voter registration population, with young voters, AAPI voters and union members oversampled.
The pollster reported a 2.8 percent margin of error and a 95 percent confidence level in their findings.
“Do you know how hard it is to get two-thirds of Americans to agree on anything? Let me put it another way: More Americans believe in unions than like chocolate ice cream,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler told union organizers and members during the organization’s inaugural “State of the Unions” address.
There have been more than 200 strikes so far in 2023, 10 times more than there were two years ago, said Shuler. She attributed the uptick in part to “corporate greed and inequality.”
The average CEO made 272 times what the average worker made in 2022, the AFL-CIO’s “Executive Paywatch” found. CEOs of S&P 500 companies received an average of $16.7 million last year, the second-highest level in history.
