Republican attacks on unions are fiercer than ever, and likely to kick up another gear if Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court. But public approval for unions ticked up to 62 percent in 2018, according to Gallup, which has been polling the issue since 1936. Approval was 61 percent in 2017, after not having hit 60 percent since 2003.
Predictably, Democrats like unions and Republicans don’t, and support is lower in the South and West than the East and Midwest. But union support is high—65 percent—among young people aged 18 to 34, and other than Democrats, the group that likes unions the most is college graduates, with 70 percent support.
A plurality of the people polled, 39 percent, want unions to have more influence, while 26 want their influence to stay the same and 29 percent want it to shrink. Again, Republican policies and Republican judges’ opinions are in direct opposition to what Americans want.
The popularity of unions among younger people is a major bright spot, something to build on and to offer hope for the future.