The ALSC (American Labor Studies Center) has a booklet published by the N.Y. State AFL-CIO. This booklet is entitled Labor’s Untold Story by Paul F. Cole. It is filled with interesting facts and observation. Here is an excerpt I would like to share with you.
“From December 1993 to January 2001, Americans’ feelings toward labor unions went from a 35% positive to a 41% positive rating while negative feelings declined from 34% to 24 % according to a poll by Hart Research. While the net positives increased for all categories, there were significant differences among groups. Overall approval of labor unions went up from 55% to 60% from August 1981 to January 2001 while disapproval declined from 35% to 25 %.According to the same research, Americans said that their chief sources of knowledge about labor unions were personal experience (37%), people in unions (26%) and the media (25%). Significantly, learning about unions in school was not even mentioned. Of all adults, 46% said they knew a fair amount or a great deal about unions while 54% said they knew just a little or did not know much about unions. Among adults neutral to unions, only 24% were in the former category while 76% were in the latter. Thus, three out of four Americans who don’t have strong opinions about unions know little or virtually nothing about them.”                                                                                    Denis Beaudoin