A large majority of Americans support the right of workers to join a union, according to a recent survey by Pew Research Center.
Among the six industrial sectors tested in the survey, support for workers’ ability to form a union is highest for factory and manufacturing workers: 82 percent say those workers should be able to unionize. No sector polled received less than 62 percent support for the right to unionize.
“The public expresses mixed views of the long-term decline in union membership on the country,” the report says. “However, the effects of the decline in union membership on working people is seen in more negative terms.”
Fifty-two percent of those polled said declining union density is bad for working people. Since 1983, the share of workers represented by a union has dropped by about half to 12.3 percent.
