Record-High 47% Want Unions to Have More Influence

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly half of Americans (47%) want labor unions in the U.S. to have more influence than they do today, a record high in the past quarter century and roughly double the 23% who want unions to have less influence. Another 26% want unions’ influence to remain the same.

The share wanting greater union influence is up four percentage points from 2023 after rising almost continuously from a record-low 25% in 2009. Over the same period, the percentage wanting unions to have less influence has fallen from 42% to a record-low 23%.

Americans’ strong desire for unions to gain influence coincides with labor union approval tying its recent high. The current 71% approval rating matches the 2022 reading and extends a six-year period in which approval has stayed between 67% and 71%.

Union approval has risen sharply from the all-time low of 48% recorded in 2009. Across Gallup’s 90-year trend on this measure, approval was only higher than now in the 1950s, when it reached 73% to 75%, and in the initial measure in 1936 (72%).

The latest findings are from Gallup’s annual Work and Education poll, conducted Aug. 3-24.

Despite Wanting Stronger Unions, Americans Are Less Sure It Will Happen

Americans’ growing desire for stronger unions does not mean they are confident this will happen. The same poll finds that 27% expect labor unions to become stronger in the future, down from a record-high 34% in 2023. Meanwhile, 39% expect unions to weaken, and 29% say their strength will remain about the same.

Even so, the share expecting unions to gain strength remains above much of the trend since 1999, when the figure was typically closer to 20%.

Democrats Drive Record-High Desire for Greater Union Influence

Democrats account for the entire increase since 2023 in Americans’ desire for unions to have more influence. Currently, 73% of Democrats hold this view, up 12 points from 61% and the highest Gallup has measured for the group. By contrast, this preference is unchanged among independents and Republicans, at 45% and 19%, respectively.

Although independents and Republicans trail Democrats by wide margins, independents’ support remains at its trend high, and Republicans’ is also relatively elevated for their group.

Republicans are the only major demographic group that is more likely to want unions to lose influence than gain it (49% vs. 19%), while another 28% want it to remain the same. Their 30-point preference for less influence contrasts with Democrats and independents favoring more influence by margins of 67 and 26 points, respectively.

Pluralities of men, women and all major age groups want unions to have more influence than they do today. Unsurprisingly, union members overwhelmingly favor unions gaining rather than losing influence (73% vs. 13%), but union non-members also lean this way, by 44% to 24%.

Democrats’ Confidence That Unions Will Rise Wanes in Past Year

Even as Democrats have grown more likely to want unions to gain influence, they have become less confident that unions will do so. Currently, 31% of Democrats expect unions to gain strength, down 16 points from 2023.

Independents’ expectation that unions will gain strength has declined by eight points to 28%, while Republicans’ is essentially unchanged at 21%.

Union members and non-members have similar outlooks for the future of union strength, with both groups leaning more pessimistic than optimistic. Among union members, 33% think unions will become stronger than they are today, while 45% think they will become weaker.

Greater Partisan Agreement on Union Approval

Partisans differ on whether unions should gain influence, but majorities in all three groups approve of unions overall: 89% of Democrats, 70% of independents and 52% of Republicans.

Broad Democratic approval is typical, but this is only the second time in the past quarter century — the first being in 2022 — that a majority of Republicans have approved of unions.

Bottom Line

Public sentiment toward labor unions has undergone a broad reversal since the Great Recession. Approval, which fell to a record-low 48% in 2009, now stands at 71%, tying the highest level Gallup has recorded since the 1960s.

Moreover, the balance of public opinion about union strength has shifted, from preferring that unions lose influence to wanting them to gain it. The latest increase in desire for greater union influence is driven by Democrats, but the preference extends beyond them — including to independents, union non-members and most major demographic groups.

At the same time, Americans are far less certain that unions will grow stronger, creating the widest gap yet between what the public wants and what it expects.

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Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. View complete question responses and trends (PDF download).