CNN.com vote question: What is your general view of labor unions?

http://www.cnn.com/

What is your general view of labor unions?
This is not a scientific poll

Negative 53% 39321
Positive 27% 20156
Neutral 20% 14539

but whoa, lots of negatives.

n/t

done

I know that labor history is often (unfairly) eliminated in schools, but

I think the labor unions better start doing more PR/education.

P.S. I am HUGELY pro-labor, by the way.

Negative 53% 39321
Positive 27% 20156
Neutral 20% 14539
Total votes: 74016

those that are, are working right now and don't have time to vote in their poll :)

What is your general view of labor unions?

Negative 53% 41124
Positive 27% 20969
Neutral 20% 15146
Total votes: 77239

promoting the right wing bullshit on unions

Let's go back to child labor, long hours, unsafe conditions with no benefits shall we?

I wonder how many people realize that they have unions to thank for that.

I'm shocked (NOT) at the negatives. There's been a lot of coverage today and most of what I've seen tends to be anti union.

It's really a shame but the unions bear a lot of responsibility. Greed infected unions years ago and they went way beyond what the original purpose was. To keep employers from abusing employees. That's an over simplification but that's pretty much it.

Years ago, I was in the Carpenters Union in DC. The biggest problem I saw back then was no one would do anything that was outside their job description. If a plumber had materials that were in my way, he would refuse to move them saying it wasn't his job. He would have to find a laborer to move it. By the time you had this episode played over and over every day, the cost over runs got so out of hand that no one wanted union labor on their jobs. With VA being a right to work state, non union labor began to get the lions share of work in the metro area.

The good news was, even non union shops paid good money, usually a dollar or so less than union because THEY HAD TO. I got hurt in 82 but at that time, our scale was like $11.42 an hr. plus bennies. That was nearly 30 years ago. Now many people in trade make even $10.00 an hr. now??

Not many and if unions go down, we'll wind up where the rethugs want us.

The most recent poll I've seen (Pew) still had a 45% positive impression of unions (41% negative).

There's actually some stuff in there that's relevant to the current story. So I'll post a new thread if it isn't already out there.


On edit - Here's the new thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x447086

I come from a Union family, and I don't believe you. The only time Union brothers are not cooperative is when they are working with known union-bashers. Which is what you are doing here. This result reflects the 40 year disinformation campaign against workers. Why must you perpetuate it?

I am NOT bashing unions and I don't care if you believe me or not. I'm just speaking about a common occurrence. There are few people that are more pro union than I am. There are however things that unions have done that have led to their demise.

And why didn't I move them? I would have no idea where to move them to as they were not my materials and I have a habit of leaving things that aren't mine alone~

do get very intense and are frequently nitpickey. Jurisdictional disputes are very real and reporting the problems they cause is not disinformation.

That being said, unions are critical to obtaining and maintaining decent working conditions for workers and I support them.

such as a carpenter installing electricity, a non union worker on a union job site. There are safety regulations that have to be met and one or another discipline is qualified to meet them or there is a FINE from a government entity. Unions have to cooperate to survive.

Love these "unscientific polls" that serve only to influence in favor of the corprateocracy

From now on, we can assume that internet polls will be skewed.

I'm sure that considering the anti-union propaganda for decades, a large percentage of the public is against the unions, but the percentage might be less than this poll shows.

Didn't think so.

Do you know the story of the labor movement? Some folks get rubbed the wrong way by a lone incident or personal wrong by one human. Shouldn't ruin the good coming from the whole movement.

The movie; 'Matewan' gives a view of it's roots - a must see, all-time great film.

Those results are frightening.

:kick:

K & R :-)

Still needs a lot of help

K&R

but still showing 53 to 27!

CNN sucks