Social Attitudes Of Trade Unionists
Geltman, Emanuel
A SURVEY COMMISSIONED by the AFL–CIO Committee on Political Education, and conducted by the Joseph Kraft polling organization in January 1967, offers rich information about the state of union...
...Let us hope they will be useful in educating their older brothers and sisters...
...For example, 25 per cent of the membership has belonged to a union less than five years...
...Ostensibly commissioned to prove that the rank and file is overwhelmingly behind President Johnson (or such is the impression one gets from reading the article on the report by Alexander E. Barkan in the August American Federationist), the survey figures seem to show anything but...
...What does this mean for trade unionism...
...So that while the members polled clearly approve Johnson over Nixon (55 per cent to 22) and over Reagan (60 per cent 11 COMMENTS AND OPINIONS to 16) and Rockefeller (55 per cent to 20), the proportion is only 46 per cent to 30 over Romney, with members under 30 years of age preferring Romney (47 per cent to 42) to Johnson...
...It means perhaps that the younger members have been reached best by education, the civil rights movement, etc...
...A surprisingly high rate of 20 per cent of all members claim they attend all union meetings...
...But the figures also reveal serious reservations about the President's policy, and the issue to which they react is clearly the war...
...Women who now make up about 20 per cent of the membership, generally favor union positions most...
...It also suggests how much plain organizing and educating remains to be done...
...Are they as committed as the older members...
...The report is inconclusive...
...It suggests, too, how far union members have yet to go in becoming the secure and stable fat cats that horrify mush heads and reactionaries...
...About 13 per cent are now Negro, and some 4 per cent belong to other minority groups—Mexican, Oriental, etc...
...A SURVEY COMMISSIONED by the AFL–CIO Committee on Political Education, and conducted by the Joseph Kraft polling organization in January 1967, offers rich information about the state of union membership...
...What the union has done for the worker can be read in the figures already cited on suburban shift...
...Members in the 30- to 49-year age bracket were for Johnson 43 per cent to 29, and those in the 50-and-over bracket were for Johnson 51 per cent to 25...
...And did the pollsters really think that any but a few cranks would oppose water pollution control...
...About a fourth of the membership is now under 25, and close to one half is under 40...
...Some 46 per cent of union families are now in the $7,500 to $15,000 income bracket...
...But about 32 per cent are still in the $5,000 to $7,500 bracket, and in both cases the reference is still to families, including other incomes...
...The findings do confirm that union members, whether young or old, cherish the social legislation and outlook they associate with the Democratic party...
...This figure becomes most intriguing in its relation to other opinions...
...The special significance of these figures can be read in another part of the report which shows that the union movement is getting younger...
...for example, members under 30 report both highest and lowest attendance at union meetings...
...It is depressing, to say the least, that on this issue 46 per cent disagree with the AFL–CIO stand, while 43 per cent support it...
...The union membership is becoming increasingly suburbanized —almost three-quarters in the age group below 40 now live in the suburbs...
...But clearly, here is an issue that calls for the greatest educational activity, along with all those other measures involved in civil and equal rights—above all, the matter of Negro membership...
...It says much for the unions that they have elevated the standard of living of the worker and helped him secure all manner of legislated benefits in social security...
...On most legislative issues the members tend to endorse AFL–CIO positions wholeheartedly...
...Without comparative figures at hand, one can only surmise that this represents progress, with a hell of a long way to go...
...an interesting fact, hard to interpret...
...There is some comfort in that as many agree as disagree among the members of the below-30 group-48 per cent...
...Yet, the single exception is the AFL–CIO's position on open housing...
Vol. 15 • January 1968 • No. 1
