Poll: Slim Majority of Americans Have Favorable View of Corporations, Unions

Employment Law

As the U.S. Supreme Court is on the verge of deciding in Janus v. AFSCME whether public sector unions may collect fees from non-members, a new poll shows a 51 percent majority of Americans consider the decades-long decline in union membership a negative development for workers.

Views of labor unions have improved since the Great Recession, where more held an unfavorable view of unions than favorable for a brief time in 2011.  Today, 55 percent of Americans view unions favorably.  

Yet most Americans also view business corporations favorably at 53 percent.  Likewise, favorability numbers for corporations have increased since the Great Recession. 

The future? Adults younger than 30 had a slightly stronger view of the decline in union membership as a bad development for workers, at 56 percent, while only 46 percent hold a favorable opinion of business corporations and 47 percent hold an unfavorable view.