The polling comes amid a fever pitch of labor exercise and unrest throughout the U.S.
With labor exercise making headlines throughout the U.S. and wealth inequality at all-time highs, new polling finds overwhelming assist among the many public for a slate of pro-worker payments superior by Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vermont) Well being, Training, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee final month.
In keeping with polling by Knowledge for Progress launched Tuesday, all three bills passed by the committee final month take pleasure in at the least over 70 p.c assist from the general public, demonstrating the general public’s curiosity in advancing staff’ rights regardless of conservative lawmakers’ refusal to take action.
One such invoice is the Defending the Proper to Manage (PRO) Act, a landmark pro-union invoice that’s been championed by labor advocates as a crucial step towards reversing a long time of the suppression of staff’ rights by company leaders and lawmakers.
The ballot finds sturdy assist for the PRO Act, with 70 p.c of voters in favor and majorities of voters throughout the political spectrum approving of the invoice.
The ballot additionally discovered that 77 p.c of voters assist Sanders’s and Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s (D-Connecticut) Well being Households Act, a invoice that may require employers with over 15 workers to offer seven days of paid sick depart to staff.
This proposal — which has change into a key demand from labor advocates amid current legislative and labor disputes — has assist throughout the political spectrum, Knowledge for Progress discovered, with 86 p.c of Democrats, 74 p.c of independents and 67 p.c of Republicans in assist.
The Paycheck Equity Act equally enjoys excessive assist, with 77 p.c in favor and equally excessive bipartisan assist, the ballot discovered. The bill seeks to eliminate loopholes that permit ladies to be paid lower than males in related roles within the office, requiring employers to show that any pay gaps between women and men are on account of components apart from gender.
The polling comes as assist for unions has hit a excessive. Final yr, Gallup discovered that 71 p.c of People approve of unions — the best approval ranking in 57 years. The labor motion, in the meantime, is making massive strides; watershed union campaigns from staff at firms like Starbucks and Amazon have breathed new life into union efforts, whereas strike exercise has been on the rise in recent times.
Simply in current months, union workers throughout sectors like media and well being care have waged historic strikes, whereas 340,000 UPS staff are getting ready to stroll off the job over paltry gives for his or her latest labor contract.
On the similar time, these staff are preventing an uphill battle. U.S. labor legal guidelines are severely skewed to favor employers, each in phrases of benefits assured to staff and rights granted to workers searching for to prepare and struggle again. The payments handed by the HELP Committee, significantly the PRO Act, would assist alleviate a few of these pressures and tip the scales, however they’ve little to no likelihood of passing with a Republican-controlled Home and the Senate filibuster in the way in which of progress.
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