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Support for Unions Hits 70-Year High as US Workers See Power of Organized Labor
"People know and understand that life is better in a union," said the head of one of the biggest U.S. labor groups.
Aug 29, 2024
Despite corporate-backed efforts to erode union power in the United States for more than a century, U.S. public support for organized labor is higher than it's been in seven decades, according to a survey published ahead of Monday's Labor Day holiday.
The annual Gallup Labor Day poll revealed that 70% of Americans approve of labor unions, while 23% disapprove. That's up from last year's 67% approval rate. Two years ago, 71% of survey respondents said they were pro-union, but 26% disapproved, meaning this year's 47-point approval margin was slightly wider than in 2022.
The upswing in support for organized labor—which paradoxically comes even as U.S. union membership remains near an all-time low—has been attributed to a wave of successful organizing in recent years including the unionization of more than 480 Starbucks stores across the country.
"People know and understand that life is better in a union," said Lee Saunders, who is president of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union, in response to the survey. "They know it means a bigger paycheck, better healthcare coverage, a more secure retirement, a safer workplace, and a lot more."
"Strong unions mean more vibrant communities and a healthier democracy," Saunders added. "When you belong to a union, you have a voice. You're not under the boss' thumb. You have the power in numbers to make change on the job. And when unions thrive—when we can stand together to improve wages and working conditions—everyone benefits."
Recent organized labor wins are reflected in this year's survey finding that 34% of respondents believe that unions will become stronger than they are today—up from 19% last year.
"From cultural institutions to healthcare and childcare, working people across the country are showing the power they have in a union to negotiate better pay, to strengthen benefits and job security, to improve worker safety, and to invest in a strong retirement," Saunders said. "Americans know that unions give working people the freedom to get ahead."
"During this high-stakes election year, we need to seize this moment and ride this wave," Saunders asserted. "On one side, you have the architects of Project 2025, who want to stop our momentum in its tracks, who want to crush us, who are even proposing an outright ban of public service unions like AFSCME," he said, referring to the groups and individuals—including at least 140 members of former President Donald Trump's administration—who have been involved in the far-right plan to overhaul the federal government. Trump is the 2024 Republican nominee.
"On the other side," Saunders added, the Democratic ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz "want to strengthen our freedoms."
"Vice President Harris led the Biden-Harris administration's efforts to crack down on union-busting and expand protections for working people," the union leader noted with a nod to Walz's membership in Minnesota's teachers union.
Responding to the poll, the Harris-Walz campaign said in a statement that "support for unions is soaring—and so is support for Vice President Harris and Governor Walz's fight for a future where every worker has the freedom to join a union."
"From educators to construction workers, healthcare professionals to public employees, and farmworkers to manufacturers, the already long list of unions representing workers across all sectors of the economy joining the Harris-Walz ticket is getting longer each week because the Harris-Walz ticket stands with working people," the statement continued.
"Workers across the country are energized and mobilized like never before because they trust Harris and Walz to not only fight for them, but to hold anti-worker scabs Donald Trump and JD Vance accountable for putting themselves and their union-busting buddies above workers' rights and American jobs," the campaign added.
The new poll came as Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump's running mate, was booed Thursday in Boston after telling attendees of the International Association of Fire Fighters convention that he's proud to be on "the most pro-worker Republican ticket in history."
While numerous unions have endorsed Harris, Trump has struggled in his efforts to court organized labor.
"We can't go backwards now," Saunders said. "We can't jeopardize the progress of recent years. We need to build on it. A labor movement with overwhelming public support is a powerful force."
"As we observe Labor Day, let's commit to using that power over the next two months to ensure victory for pro-worker candidates at all levels, up and down the ballot," he added.
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In 'Fiery' Speech, Walz Blasts Trump and Vance as Enemies of the Working Class
The vice presidential candidate touted his record of signing pro-worker legislation as the governor of Minnesota, and attacked Donald Trump for waging "war on working people."
Aug 14, 2024
Making his first solo campaign stop since being named as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate last week, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz selected unionized government workers as his audience on Tuesday—sending the message that he is "more than an ally."
The Democratic vice presidential candidate "understands us because he is one of us—a union brother who spent years as a public service worker in his community," said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). "He embodies the very best of public service—leading with empathy, looking after everyone and leaving behind no one."
Walz, who was a dues-paying member of the National Education Association during his years as a high school teacher, told AFSCME members at the union's 46th international convention in Los Angeles about his strong record of fighting for workers' rights as governor of Minnesota, and said they can count on solidarity from both him and Harris.
"We know that when unions are strong, America is strong," Walz said. "That's why Vice President Harris and I have both joined workers on the picket line."
Walz last year signed into law a legislative package including paid family and medical leave, a prohibition on non-compete clauses, a ban on anti-union captive audience meetings, and a provision allowing teachers to bargain over educator-to-student ratios, among other pro-worker measures.
The governor's comments about captive audience meetings, which employers mandate that workers attend in order to listen to one-sided claims and arguments against unionization, won applause from observers on social media.
With the pro-worker policies passed by his state's Democratic legislature and signed by him in place, said Walz, "Minnesota is one of the best states for workers in the nation. That's our vision for the entire country."
Watch the whole speech below:
Walz also took aim at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), saying they have "waged war on working people."
Vance opposed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would expand the rights of workers to unionize their workplaces, and voted to strike down an update to the National Labor Relations Board's joint-employer rule, which aimed to give workers more power at companies that use third-party contractors.
Walz's speech came a day after Trump praised Tesla's billionaire CEO, Elon Musk, for firing striking workers in a conversation the two held on X, the social media platform owned by Musk.
Trump's comment that Musk was "the greatest cutter" led the United Auto Workers to file federal charges against both men on Tuesday, with the union saying the remarks amounted to worker intimidation.
"The only thing those two guys know about working people is how to work to take advantage of them," Walz said on Tuesday of Trump and Vance, adding that Trump was a "scab" for supporting so-called "right to work" laws, which allow employees at unionized companies to opt out of paying dues to the union while still benefiting from collective bargaining.
Unlike Trump, said Walz, he and Harris "know exactly who built this country."
"It was nurses, it was teachers, and it was state and local government employees that built this nation," he said. "People in this room built the middle class."
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Progressives, Democrats Unleash on GOP Over Government Shutdown Chaos
"Extremists in Congress need to stop using our lives as bargaining chips," said AFSCME's president. "It's time for them to follow through on the promises they have already made to keep the government open."
Sep 20, 2023
Just 10 days away from a potential U.S. government shutdown, calls for bipartisan action to prevent it are mounting, as is outrage over Republicans in the House of Representatives who seem content with causing chaos.
"What we want is simple: No cuts. No layoffs. No shutdown," Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said at an afternoon press conference. She described the "Republican shutdown" as "a ticking time bomb," and called out the GOP—particularly House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)—for lighting the fuse.
"And who loses from these absurd, delusional political games? Working- and middle-class families will suffer," Jayapal stressed. In addition to some CPC members, she was flanked by signs calling out McCarthy and warning that MAGA Republicans are trying to pull teachers out of classrooms, kick kids out of preschool, and slash funding for food aid.
Far-right House Republicans this week have refused to support a McCarthy-backed continuing resolution (CR) that would prevent a government shutdown for a month. The measure contains provisions also opposed by congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden—including spending cuts that conflict with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the debt limit deal Biden struck with McCarthy earlier this year.
In a Wednesday letter to McCarthy arguing that "the time has come to end partisan posturing and put forward a viable path to funding our government," 92 members of the CPC noted that the GOP has pushed for betraying the debt ceiling deal.
"We stand ready to support a bipartisan funding vehicle free of poison pill policy riders that is consistent with the agreement you struck with President Biden and which was ratified by bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate," they wrote. "If you choose not to pass a bipartisan government funding bill consistent with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, you are deliberately choosing to shut down the government."
"We can look to the Senate for an example, where senators achieved bipartisan consensus on funding and policy for all 12 of its appropriations bills," the CPC members continued. "In contrast, your House majority has been unable to pass the vast majority of its own hyper-partisan appropriations bills, despite the inclusion of extreme policy riders and draconian spending cuts designed to accommodate the far-right faction of your conference."
The CPC was far from alone in calling out the GOP on Wednesday. The Biden White House said in a lengthy statement that "extreme House Republicans are consumed by chaos and marching our country toward a government shutdown that would damage our communities, economy, and national security."
The White House highlighted impacts of the looming shutdown, from endangering disaster response and delaying infrastructure projects to undermining medical research, food safety, and environmental and public health protections.
"These consequences are real and avoidable—but only if House Republicans stop playing political games with people's lives and catering to the ideological demands of their most extreme, far-right members," the White House added. "It's time for House Republicans to abide by the bipartisan budget agreement that a majority of them voted for, keep the government open, and address other urgent needs for the American people."
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)—the nation's largest trade union of public employees—also called out "anti-worker politicians in Congress" for "going back on their word."
"They are demanding drastic cuts to the essential programs millions of families need to survive—food, housing, education, and more," he said. "And to get their way, they are using the threat of a government shutdown, which would jeopardize the livelihood of frontline federal employees as well as their families, while pausing lifesaving programs for millions of people nationwide."
"All this to appease their corporate megadonors, who care about little else besides receiving massive tax cuts," Saunders emphasized. "Extremists in Congress need to stop using our lives as bargaining chips. It's time for them to follow through on the promises they have already made to keep the government open."
The current GOP-caused chaos on Capitol Hill was arguably predicable. As Chris Lehmann
wrote Tuesday for The Nation:
Today's shutdown battle involves little in the way of clear policy objectives beyond McCarthy's rapid capitulation to far-right House demands to launch Biden impeachment inquiries and the perennial demand for more draconian measures to police the U.S. southern border. "In many ways, the shutdown is the goal," says Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer... "Meaning, to create chaos and dysfunction has become an animating goal for the GOP, which makes negotiation much harder to achieve even within the party."
[...]
Across the past quarter-century of Republican-engineered shutdowns, the clearest lesson is that the triumph of procedural nihilism only ensures that things will get worse. Since this budget bloodsport launched in 1995, Zelizer says, "we have seen a continual ratcheting up of what the GOP is willing to do: shutdowns, debt ceiling threats, and the rest are all part of the new normal. McCarthy... accepts this and agreed to rules that made these forces stronger than ever."
Given those conditions, "small groups of centrist Democrats are holding secret talks with several of McCarthy's close GOP allies about a last-ditch deal to fund the government," Politico reported Wednesday, citing over a half-dozen people familiar with the discussions.
"Generally, the bipartisan group is focusing on two major ideas: a procedural maneuver to force a vote on a compromise spending plan—or somehow crafting a bill so popular that McCarthy can pass it and survive any challenge from the right," according to the outlet. "That bill would likely be a bipartisan short-term patch with some disaster money, Ukraine aid, and small-scale border policies."
In the meantime, Punchbowl News' John Bresnahan reported after House Republicans' Wednesday afternoon meeting that "the current thinking in House GOP leadership" is that the chamber should focus on a defense bill Thursday and Friday, then pass a new CR Saturday.
Then, the Senate could take up the CR, amend it, and send it back to House, which "will take several days" and "sets up shutdown drama for [the] following weekend," he explained, stressing that "this is all very fluid."
On the Senate side, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that "House Republicans rejected their own extremist bill, and by rejecting it, that's a dead giveaway they're not serious about avoiding a shutdown."
"Speaker McCarthy says he wants to avoid a shutdown, he says nobody wins in a shutdown," Schumer added. "Well, then he should reach across the aisle to find an agreement that actually has the votes to pass both chambers. That's the only way—the only way—this crisis gets resolved."
This post has been updated with comment from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the Groundwork Collaborative.
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