AFL-CIO survey: American public likes
unions more and more
Unions are winning the public relations battle against corporate
mud-slinging, according to a recent survey conducted for the US
labour
federation AFL-CIO. And the American public has more confidence
in unions on health and safety than on any other issue.
A January 2001 survey by the Peter D. Hart Research Group for
the AFL-CIO revealed that the public's opinions on unions and
their objectives has risen dramatically since 1993. But just as
important, noted Guy Molyneux, the Hart group pollster who explained
the study, was the fact that negative anti-union opinions dropped
dramatically.
Responses about confidence in labour movement priorities on national
issues showed more than 70 per cent of the poll sample had "a
lot of confidence" or "a fair amount of confidence"
that unions "would contribute positively to workplace health
and safety issues.
This topped the confidence table, followed by overtime work/hours
per week (62 per cent) and health care (56 per cent).
The AFL-CIO poll found that 87 per cent of those questioned approved
of labour's position in trying to get regulations to lessen repetitive
strain injuries.
Excerpt from Graphic Communicator, GCIU, March-April 2001
Union workplaces are safer workplaces
Findings of the Australian Workplace Relations Survey 1990-95,
conducted by Federal government every five years. Survey of 20,000
employees.
Results: If there was no union at the workplace
19% of workplaces had Health and Safety Committee
41% had a Health and Safety Representative
25% had undergone a OHS Audit in the last year
Results: If there was a union
and union delegate at the workplace
59% had a Health and Safety Committee
82% had a Health and Safety Representative
46% had undergone a OHS Audit in the last year.
Unionised workplaces in Australia are three times as likely to
have likely to have a health and safety committee and twice as
likely to have undergone a management occupational health and
safety audit in the previous 12 months.
