Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican lawmakers across the nation may insist that they have the majority of public opinion on their side in a radical push to end collective bargaining for public employees, but the polling data suggests otherwise. By quite a bit, actually.
A brand new USA Today/Gallup poll finds that an overwhelming 61 percent of Americans would oppose a law similar to the one that has started a firestorm in Wisconsin and would strip away the right to collective bargaining for public employees and their unions. Only 33 percent would support such a measure. These numbers are important because Republican governors and lawmakers in several states have introduced or are planning to introduce almost identical pieces of legislation to the one currently on the table in Wisconsin.
And the support for public employees does not end with collective bargaining.
53 percent of Americans are opposed to any plan that would reduce pay or benefits for government workers, something almost every state, even those controlled by Democratic governors or legislative majorities, has done or is proposing.
The public strongly opposes laws taking away the collective bargaining power of public employee unions as a way to ease state financial troubles, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll.
The poll found that 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to one being considered in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law.
Ohio and several other states that have new Republican governors and legislative majorities are considering laws that would reduce the power of government employee unions to bargain over benefits and work rules.
Wisconsin is the first state to consider the limits, prompting protests that have closed schools and drawn tens of thousands of protesters to the state Capitol in Madison.
The poll results suggest how politically difficult it is to solve budget shortfalls. The survey found that people believe budget problems in their state are real but strongly oppose tax hikes to solve them. Americans are split on whether to cut state services to balance budgets.
The survey of 1,000 adults was taken Monday night. It has a margin of error of 4%.
Key results:
• 71% oppose increasing sales, income or other taxes while 27% are in favor that approach.
• 53% oppose reducing pay or benefits for government workers while 44% are in favor.
• 48% opposed reducing or eliminating government programs while 47% were in favor of cuts.
Looks like the poll results show that more and more people are catching on to the fact that poor workers did not bring about the financial deficits, or outsource the jobs.
The 31% in support of destroying the unions is most likely comprised of mostly Tea Party Imbeciles,…
Just wait until the people of this country see the rest of the tea-bagger Republican agenda in action!
I don’t see how permanently giving up the right to collectively bargain helps the budget crisis at all. Considering the unions have already said they will make concessions, it seems to me governor walker is using this for long term partisan gain. And since when have the state police been allowed to go after lawmakers on a peaceful boycott? That to me seems like an illegal use of state funds