From the New York Times:
As labor battles erupt in state capitals around the nation, a majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
Some rather surprising data came out of this poll.
- Americans oppose weakening collective bargaining rights nearly 2 to 1.
- Americans oppose, 56 percent to 37 percent, cutting the pay or benefits of public employees to reduce deficits.
- A majority of respondents who have no union members living in their households oppose both cuts in pay or benefits and taking away the collective bargaining rights of public employees.
- 61% of the respondents think the salaries and benefits of most public employees are either “about right” or “too low” for the work they do.
The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Feb. 24-27 with 984 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all adults. Of those surveyed, 20 percent said there was a union member in their household, and 25 percent said there was a public employee in their household.
Further information can be obtained from the link to the New York Times.
the new york slimes is hardly the venue to seek an unadulterated objective analysis, they will skew poll results to suit their political agenda. 25 percent of respondents said there was a public employee in their household? how representative is that?
the whole concept of collective bargaining rights of public employee unions is nonsensical. who are they bargaining with/against? answer: the american taxpayer, who says throw the bums out
Winos are tax payers. I don’t know a single person who isn’t a taxpayer. What makes the taxpayer unique? Why not just say ‘people’?
Interesting sampling methodology, given that only 17% of the workforce is employed by the government and only 11.9% belong to unions.
Either their statisticians are incompetent or this is simply another lie from the universe of lies that is the NYT.
Perhaps it was local polling. I expect that there are far more union members in NY than in VA, for example.
Making the entire pool suspect.
I think if these numbers WERE true let’s get those Democrats back from Illinois and back into the Senate chamber to vote.. Let’s see how valid the poll is then.
That doesn’t even make sense. You know there are only 14 of them. This was a poll of the public.
I don’t know why you think people are unsympathetic to the unions up in Wisconsin. Everyone I have talked to, other than on the blog, is in sympathy with them.
Where Walker lost his you know what is he said he wouldn’t compromise. If the union folks conceded, then Walker shouldn’t have come along, Ba!!s to the Wall and said they had to give up collective bargaining. He was dead wrong and they would be stupid to concede now. Right now, there is collective bargaining and he isn’t doing his fair share.
I cannot stand to look at the slimy little weasel.
Which part doesn’t make sense?
What I’m saying is — if the public really does have the back of these “brave” 14.. Have them come back to WI and *force* the vote and call this GOP bluff. The public sides with pro-union forces, right? So, all things being equal the GOP will fold and the vote will go the unions way, right?
..or maybe the public doesn’t really support the union. Maybe the public is tired of paying those fatcat salaries and benefits.
I’m comfortable enough in my position that I say let’s bring on the vote. Are you as comfortable? 😉
@marin, with that legislature? Oh hell no. I can count. But how does a legislature compare to a general population survey?
Do I think they have garnered a great deal of sympathy? Absolutely. I know they have.
General population survey of whom? If it’s a national survey of the Northern states you’ll get a different answer than if you did the same of the south. And, to be honest what really matters is not what the nation thinks but what the taxpayers and voters of WI think and feel.
If they vote incorrectly they may be voted out or recalled. Either way that’s democracy in action, right?
They may or may not have gotten a good deal of sympathy. But, the question really is does that sympathy equate votes in the WI Senate?
It balances Fox. So there you go. Actually I would prefer a poll conducted by PBS newhour but we gave that not for profit news reporting up yesterday.
Any interest in the fact that Wisconsin has one of highest SAT scores in the nation? Or is the outcome of the teachers is not relavant in this case?
I have relatives in Wisconsin – one a Republican business owner with about 1,000 employees. I can tell you there is a slow realization going on out there among the people.
@Juturna
Discussed in the teacher-fat-cat thread was that WI has 4% of it’s eligable population doing the SAT. When only 4% are doing it the scores tend to be higher than a state that has a much higher percentage doing it. So, the number is artificial. Granted, it’s GOOD to be IN that 4% but context is everything.
I give up. What’s the national average for percent taking the test? What are the local policies for making kids without a shot take the test.
If it was a reverse discussion you’d use it. I just give up.
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/policyblog/detail/2010-sat-scores-by-state shows the numbers.
The ACT info is at http://www.act.org/news/data/09/states.html
Not beating anyone up on this info.. Any of these numbers can be shifted to say one thing or the other.
It isn’t just WI that needs to worry. People all over the United States are watching Gov. Scott Walker make a total rear end of himself. He is seen as a bully and a person who can’t play by his own rules.
As the protests spring up in other states, it very much does matter what other people in other places think. Wisconsin is the epicenter of the entire labor movement right now. I wouldn’t dismiss other people’s opinion. Not for a minute.
As for the 4%, I am just saying once again Faux News made ridiculous asses of themselves. #2 in the nation for whatever reason is not an example of a state doing poorly on test scores. Isn’t the bottom line of all this testing really to prepare kids for college?
Last I heard, #2 had moved up to #1. For lousy teachers, someone is doing a hell of a job.
do you get ALL your facts from blogs?
M-H, historically taking on the middle class backfires. Wonder what Joe the Plumber thinks.