For 18 years, Gallup has been asking people this question:
Would you personally like to see labor unions in the United States — have more influence than they have today, the same amount as they have today (or) less influence than they have today?
This year, more people than ever before (39 percent) want unions to have more influence and the lowest number (28 percent) of people want them to have less influence. Since unions created the middle class (which is now rapidly disappearing), perhaps that should come as no surprise.
At an approval rating of 61 percent, it appears that labor unions are recovering from the slump that occurred during the Great Recession of 2009 when the approval (48 percent) dropped below 50 percent for the first time since Gallup began collecting the data.
So why are there more right-to-work states than ever before?