Poll: Union Members Angry About Money Leadership Wasting on Election

Is there about to be a new Tea Party led by Union rank and file? A nationwide poll of 760 union members from both the private and government sector conducted last week by Frank Luntz of Fox News fame shows an incredible dis-attachment between union leadership and they people they are supposed to be working for, the rank and file.

Conducted for the National Right to Work foundation, the poll found that 60 percent of union members oppose their union bosses’ political spending in the 2010 midterm elections, viewing it a wasteful use of union dues and treasuries to protect incumbent Democrat politicians in Washington, D.C.

Recently the Wall Street Journal reported that Unions were among the top political spenders during this political cycle.

Despite Big Labor’s 2010 political spending blitz nearly 60 percent of union members believe that a mostly even balance of power between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill is best for America and the same number would rather that money be spent working with employers to create new and better jobs. A majority of union members even believe that union political spending should be used to to get rid of incumbents, especially Nancy Pelosi.

The rank and file is so angered by their leadership's political spending that  59 percent of union membership would  vote to replace their own union leadership if given a secret ballot election to do so.

Half of union members view President Obama and the Democratic Congress’s healthcare reform bill as a failure, while only 37 percent view it as a success. Majorities also view the 2009 stimulus bill and the 2008 corporate bailouts as failures. Overwhelming majorities oppose future government spending and debt to rejuvenate the economy; and two-thirds of union members instead trust entrepreneurs, small businesses, and employers to lead America to better job growth.

In regards to their own union representation, a plurality of union members disapprove of the job America’s “labor leaders” are doing and view their union hierarchies as less honest and principled than 50 years ago. A whopping 72 percent of union members think union bosses should be held more accountable to workers and 63 percent think union officials are overpaid. Sixty-six percent think union officers mostly look out for themselves instead of “the little guy.”

Eighty percent supported the Right to Work principle that union membership and dues payment should be voluntary and not required as a condition of employment. Nearly 90 percent of union employees surveyed favored more union hierarchy disclosure and accountability.

“As top union officials are pouring an estimated one billion dollars into re-electing Democrats into Congress, a large majority of union members actually oppose the union bosses’ political agenda” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “That’s why it comes to no surprise that union members would like to replace their own union leadership, and overwhelmingly support the Right to Work principle for all of America’s workers.”

The attitudes of union membership is not much different than the opinions of the general public.  It is their leadership, like the progressive candidates who they support who are out of touch.

Read the entire poll below:

Luntz_NRTW_Union_Member_Survey_Oct2010