Americans back collective bargaining rights

01 March 2011 |permalink | email article

A just released New York Times/CBS News poll indicates that on the issue of collective bargaining by public employee unions a majority of Americans oppose weakening such rights, and are against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits.

Labor unions are not exactly popular but the nationwide poll found that embattled public employee unions have the support of most Americans – and most independents – as they fight efforts of newly elected Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio to weaken their bargaining powers and the attempts of governors of both parties to cut their pay or benefits.

The data is a blow to rookie Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker, the Tea Party zealot aligned with the Koch brothers, in his determination to weaken such rights.  The poll found that an overwhelming 71 percent of Democrats opposed such action, but there was also strong opposition from independents: 62 percent said they opposed taking bargaining rights away from public employee unions. The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Feb. 24-27 with 984 adults and a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all adults.

Jobs

An independent economic analysis published Monday in the Washington Post suggests that a Republican plan to sharply cut federal spending this year would destroy 700,000 jobs through 2012. The report, by Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, architect of the 2009 stimulus package, gives fresh ammunition to Democrats seeking to block the Republican plan. It would terminate dozens of programs and slash federal appropriations by $61 billion over the next seven months.

Quotable

“Rather than declare war on unions, we should demand a new deal with them – one that reflects today’s economic realties and workplace conditions, not those of a century ago. If we fail to do that, the fault is not in our unions, or in our stars, but in ourselves.” – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg

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