New NYTimes/CBSNews Poll Shows Support for Embattled Public Sector Workers

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/us/01poll.html?_r=1&hp

Poll Shows Support for Embattled Public Sector WorkersBy MICHAEL COOPER and MEGAN THEE-BRENAN
Published: February 28, 2011
As labor battles erupt in state capitals around the nation, a majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Labor unions are not exactly popular, though: a third of those surveyed viewed them favorably, a quarter viewed them unfavorably, and the rest said they were either undecided or had not heard enough about them. But the nationwide poll found that embattled public employee unions have the support of most Americans — and most independents — as they fight the efforts of newly elected Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio to weaken their bargaining powers, and the attempts of governors from both parties to cut their pay or benefits.

Americans oppose weakening the bargaining rights of public employee unions by a margin of nearly two to one: 60 percent to 33 percent. While a slim majority of Republicans favored taking away some bargaining rights, they were outnumbered by large majorities of Democrats and independents who said they opposed weakening them. Those surveyed said they opposed, 56 percent to 37 percent, cutting the pay or benefits of public employees to reduce deficits, breaking down along similar party lines. A majority of respondents who have no union members living in their households opposed both cuts in pay or benefits and taking away the collective bargaining rights of public employees.


More at link

Union/public worker against corporate/private business worker. In the end, it won't work because both these people are WORKERS, not the government officials or corporate elite owners. They have a common ground. NEITHER are rich.

Eventually, despite the differences, they are cut from the same cloth.

The old divide-and-conquer is becoming just plain... old!

There's a lot more people who KNOW about this stragegy now than they have in the past. That's a good thing.

What is really alarming is the 33% agreeing with this extremely thinly veiled assault on a basic human Rights

Just watched a segment on the poll on Katie's CBS newscast - WOW!

It'll be posted on the CBSnews site in a couple of hours.

Who knew that acting like a controlling asshole would turn public sentiment against you? :rofl:

say it ain't so - say it ain't so

get with it, NYTimes, get on the RIGHT side of this.

that they believe "prosperity" is only for "certain people?"

If prosperity is desirable, we should all want it. We should all be paid a decent wage for our work. Charles Koch isn't the only fucker who works or worked 12-hour days and weekends.

And if it's greedy for the workers to ask for a living wage and benefits, doesn't that mean that the Kochs - and every single professional politician - and every CEO making bank is evil beyond the pale?

Because their avarice - unlike the workers' modest desire for a decent life - knows no bounds...they condemn themselves as low-life "uber-takers" with their own words...

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7358035n

As protests persist in Wisconsin over the plan proposed by Gov. Scott Walker to cut the compensation of public employees, Dean Reynolds reports on a new poll that shows the public is against cutting pay and benefits.

Fox needed something to counter the NYT poll tomorrow after the fiasco the other day when they reversed the poll numbers and then proceeded to use those poll numbers to bash the unions for half an hour before finally having to "apologize" for "mixing up the numbers".. Funny the apology didn't come with the caveat that the "right" poll numbers just negated every single argument they made.