IAM Poll Reveals Bi-Partisan Disapproval

In the second annual poll designed to give IAM members an opportunity to express their concerns about the state of the economy, the verdict was clear: President Obama isn’t doing enough to create jobs, with only 15.2 percent rating him excellent or good and 83.2 percent giving him a not-so-good or poor rating on having a strong, aggressive program to get people back to work.

As disappointed as IAM members were in the president’s performance, their disdain for Congress was clear. Over 51 percent said they would NOT support their member of Congress for re-election – a 4 percent decline from 2010, but still not an encouraging sign for incumbents.

The nearly 1,900 IAM members who took part in the poll were bi-partisan in their disapproval. They felt neither party was: controlling the growth of the federal deficit (64.6 %); standing up forcefully to the big banks (63.9 %); or pushing a strong jobs program to get people back to work (63.2 %). Democrats drew their best marks on standing up for the interests of working people (45.1 %); pushing programs to rebuild America’s infrastructure (44.6 %); and protecting Social Security and Medicare (43.1 %).

Additional poll findings revealed that IAM members overwhelmingly believe that:

• The United States needs an industrial policy (93.9 %);
• Tax policies should discourage outsourcing of American jobs (96.5 %);
• Trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA should be renegotiated (90.2 %);
• Our country needs strong and enforceable “Buy American” legislation (91.3 %);
• America needs a Roosevelt-Kennedy style jobs program to get Americans who want to work back to work immediately (85.3 %);
• The federal government should hire jobless Americans to renovate factories and install new equipment (81.8 %); and
• Businesses should get investment tax credits to modernize their plants and purchase new machinery (80.2 %).

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