HarperCollins Publishing employees participate in a one-day strike outside the publisher’s Manhattan offices on July 20, 2022 in New York City.
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Spencer Platt / Getty Images
HarperCollins Publishing employees participate in a one-day strike outside the publisher’s Manhattan offices on July 20, 2022 in New York City.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Support for labor unions in the US is at a 57-year high. according to a new Gallup poll.
70% of Americans now approve of labor unions – up from 68% last year. Union support is also up from 64%, before the COVID-19 pandemic and the highest the polling company has recorded since 1965.
According to Gallup, support for unions peaked in the 1950s, when three in four Americans approved of labor unions.
Nowadays, Union dynamics are picking up slightly as the recent surge in organizational activity continues at some of the largest companies. in the United States Workers at Starbucks, Amazonand Chipotle united to demand higher wages and better working conditions.
Although fulfillment centers and chain coffee shops are some newer venues to organize, Gallup polling shows that union membership remains the largest in industries that have long been unionized. The organization says membership is “highest among frontline workers and production workers”; 20% of them belong to a union.
Following those workers are healthcare and social assistance professionals, 13% of whom are union members are white–share workers (11%), and then administrative and clerical staff (10%).
Support for unions may be at a record high, but the number of people who can actually say they are a member of a union is still quite low, when compared to decades ago.
Bureau of Labor Statistics reports as of 2021, The number of workers belonging to unions is 14 million people – accounting for 10.3%. This is down from 10.8% in 2020. In 1983, the earliest year for comparable membership data, about 20% of workers worked in unions, the BLS said.
