Labor Day poll shows popular support for Right-to-Work laws
As is their custom around Labor Day, the Gallup Organization has released a nationwide poll on attitudes toward labor unions. While a majority of Americans still approve of unions, their support is close to an all-time low. And support for Right-to-Work laws is strong. According to the Gallup poll, 71 percent of Americans would vote...
As is their custom around Labor Day, the Gallup Organization has released a nationwide poll on attitudes toward labor unions. While a majority of Americans still approve of unions, their support is close to an all-time low. And support for Right-to-Work laws is strong.
According to the Gallup poll, 71 percent of Americans would vote for a Right-to-Work law that would “say each worker has a right to hold his job in a company, no matter whether he joins a union or not.”
Diving further into the issue, Gallup asked about the basic arguments raised by proponents and opponents of right-to-work laws. 82 percent believed it was wrong to force workers to join a private organization, like a union, against their will – showing strong support and understanding of the argument in favor of right-to-work legislation.
In opposition, union officials will argue that workers should be obligated to pay union dues and fees because “all workers share the gains won by the labor union,” but Americans, perhaps remembering cases where unions have cost workers their jobs, rejected that argument by a 64-32 margin.
All told, Americans still approve of unions by a respectable 53-38 margin, but that support is much narrower than it was as recently as 2003, when 65 percent of Americans approved and only 29 disapproved of unions.
These poll results show that the American public still wants workers to have access to union representation, but they’re frustrated by the political partisanship and radicalism of many labor-union officials. The union movement is in need of reform, and right-to-work laws are the best, most popular way to bring about that reform.
