Poll Finds 71% of Americans Approve of Unions
Andy O’Brien
Despite constant attacks on our right to organize, Americans continue to overwhelmingly approve of unions. Trust in America's unions is rising again at a time when working people are sour on just about everything else. Gallup's annual survey on union approvalshowed 71% of Americans approve of unions, which ties a record high set in 2022.
The AFL-CIO also released a deeper dive on sentiment toward unions in a new poll conducted by David Binder Research that shows not only do Americans approve of unions, they trust us and many, especially young workers, want a union on the job.
Here are some highlights from the AFL-CIO poll:
- Trust in unions exceeds trust in the Democratic Party by 20 points (52% to 32%), and workers are twice as likely to trust unions than to trust the Republican Party (52% to 26%).
- Young workers ages 18–30 trust labor unions (61%) more than twice as much as they trust the Democratic Party (28%) or the Republican Party (22%). Among young men, the trust gap is 40 points between unions and Democrats (63% to 23%) and 43 points between unions and Republicans (63% to 20%).
- The only group workers trust more than unions is their own neighbors (75%).
- For five years running, 7 in 10 Americans say they support unions—the highest level of support in a generation.
- By a 2-to-1 margin, people say unions are more needed today than in the past, and say increasing union membership is the single best way Americans can get a raise.
- More workers than ever want a union on the job. Among those ages 18–30, 57% who aren't in a union say they'd join one at their most recent workplace, up 10 points since last year. Workers are more likely to say the path to higher wages is through more people belonging to unions or electing candidates endorsed by unions (22%) than through electing Democrats (20%) or Republicans (19%).