Public Perceptions of Unions

In August 2009, the Gallup Poll reported a significant drop in the favorability rating for labor unions among Americans. Fewer than half those polled, 48 percent, approved of labor unions, down from 59 percent in 2008. ¹ The rating also represented the lowest level since Gallup began asking as part of its annual Work and Education Survey, “Do you approve or disapprove of labor unions?” in 1936, one year after the passage of the National Labor Relations Act, which granted most private-sector employees in the United States the right to join unions and engage in collective bargaining. In 1936, 72 percent of Americans approved of unions, and only 20 percent disapproved. ² The approval rating remained between 60 percent and 70 percent until 1979, with a drop to 55 percent in 1979, the previous low level. ³ The poll revealed a sentiment being felt by unionists at the time that the economic downturn had created anger and fear among the public that was at times being directed at union workers.

In the United States, this was most noticeable in the dialogue around the hardships facing American automakers and the subsequent government loans to General Motors and Chrysler. It was common to hear news commentators or people on the streets blaming the high wages and Cadillac benefit packages of the UAW-represented autoworkers for the problems of the industry. ⁴ The less-than-positive public sentiment captured by the 2009 Gallup Poll continued into 2011, as battles over public-sector workers and their rights to collective bargaining developed in a number of states, including Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Florida, and Missouri. A slew of Republican governors introduced legislation that would limit the rights of public-sector employees with the justification that budgetary problems demanded it. The problems were again blamed on workers and their unions.

Labor-focused academics and practitioners began to question the root of this shift in public opinion, and at the 2011 United Association for Labor Education Conference, two panels were organized with papers addressing the public’s perceptions of labor unions. This special issue presents four of these papers, representing a diversity of approaches to the topic. The authors come from the fields of industrial relations, business, and labor education. Their studies utilize international survey data, intensive case studies, economic data analysis, and pedagogical modeling.

Three articles include countries outside the United States and serve to expand our look at public perceptions of unions beyond the U.S. model. Givan and Hipp use the 2005 International Social Survey Program, which compiles responses from twenty-four nations, to examine the relationship between union membership and perceptions of unions. They find that union membership status and gender help to determine perceptions of the efficacy of unions. Current and former union members have a more positive view of the ability of unions to provide job security and improve working conditions. Among nonunion workers, women are more likely than men to have a positive view of unions. Turner and D’Art use a large Europe-wide survey to examine the perceived need for unions among Europeans. Their study reveals that a majority of Europeans see a need for strong trade unions to protect their wages and working conditions. McAndrew and Risak provide an in-depth case study of how the climate for unions in New Zealand permitted dramatic changes to be made in employment for the film industry. Bowing to strong corporate interests, the government rolled back employee protections and reclassified workers in the film industry as independent contractors. This article examines how the labor movement and general public allowed this to happen.

The final article, by Wills, presents a pedagogical model that bridges the worlds of labor education and undergraduate teaching by establishing a dialogue between workers and university students through writing, presentations, and exchanges. This approach works to address the lack of exposure many traditional college students have to labor unions and to help shape their perceptions.

Public perceptions of unions continue to evolve. In the United States, the protests involving the rights of public-sector workers and Occupy Wall Street have reframed the debates about the role of unions. ⁵ The articles in this special edition contribute to the discourse around the issue, with the hope that more research and discussion will follow.