Workers in the United States seeking to unionize have good reason to feel exuberant this Labor Day. Public excitement about their efforts to organize is spreading, more and younger workers are unionizing, and changes to the government rules regulating those efforts are rebalancing the scales ever so slightly away from a union-busting free-for-all.
A new Gallup poll shows overwhelming support for workers who are challenging the unfettered power and greed of the corporate elite. Film and television writers demanding justice from the Hollywood and Silicon Valley billionaires, now heading into the fourth month of their strike, enjoy 72 percent support from everyday people (versus only 19 percent supporting the employers). For the autoworkers fighting to reclaim fair compensation for all their members—not to mention reining in the out-ofcontrol work regimes imposed by the Big Three auto CEOs and fighting to wrest back the right to a life outside of work—an eye-popping three in four Americans stand with the workers. Most Americans—77 percent—now believe unions are good for their members (up 11 percent since 2009), with 61 percent saying unions are good for the economy and 57 percent saying unions are helpful to the companies for whom they work. That’s the general public—not Democrats, not union members.
Jane McAlevey, The Nation