"America backs the UAW, for now"
Survey finds less support for General Motors By
Emily Church, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 06:22
PM July 23, 1998
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- The American public is
standing behind the United Auto Workers in their
seven-week strike against General Motors, at
least for now.
A CBS News poll released Thursday found that 46
percent of respondents back the U.A.W. with 37
percent on the GM (GM) side of the dispute.
Meanwhile, GM and the unions entered their
second day of arbitration Thursday over the
legality of their strike. See full story.
Support for unions is especially strong
among Americans under 30, according the
poll of 979 adults. Some 52 percent of
younger Americans say they sympathize
with the union in this strike. Non-union
households, on the other hand, are pretty
evenly split: 40 percent side with the union and
41 percent with the company.
Unions have found growing support
among the public over the past two years,
CBS pollsters note. Unions in general
didn't fare so well in the 1980s, when
public opinion was evenly divided in labor
disputes.
The steady support numbers for the union
in recent years doesn't surprise Conference
Board economist Ken Goldstein. People tend to
support union strike actions until it begins to
affect their lives.
"This basically tells us that the general
public is yawning over this event," he said.
"With less than 15 percent of the workforce
unionized, it's not surprising that for most
people, this is not really a big issue anymore.
"There are times when people are sort of pushed
back into consciousness that there is a labor
movement and it's usually when they're stuck in
traffic (due to a strike)," he added.
During the Teamsters-United Parcel
Service strike last year, only 39 percent of
respondents said they backed the Teamsters
against the 51 percent who supported UPS.
Declining membership
Union membership has been trending
down for years. In 1983, about 29 percent
of workers in durable goods manufacturing
businesses like GM were in unions. By
1997, that figure had slipped to 17.5
percent, said Jay Meisenheimer, an economist at
the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In general, declining union membership has a lot
to do with the overall shift away from
employment in industries with a higher number of
union members toward industries with lower
rates.
Yet, Meisenheimer notes membership is down
overall even within union-oriented industries
like durable goods. Changes like automation are
cutting into union jobs.
The big decline in union jobs is coming from the
private sector. Union membership for employees
of federal, state or local governments has
stayed in a 16-17 percent range since the 1960s,
he said.
Emily Church is a reporter for CBS MarketWatch. |
