Voters Across Party Lines Support the UAW Strikes — and Support Is Rising
By Lew Blank
Since 2019, CEO pay at the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (the owner of Chrysler and Jeep) — has soared by 40%. Meanwhile, autoworkers have only seen their wages rise by 6%.
The UAW responded by launching a historic strike on September 15, beginning with walkouts at three auto plants and now extending to an additional 38 parts distribution centers across 20 states. The UAW is demanding a 36% wage increase over four years in response to a rising cost of living and huge increases in CEO pay. They are also demanding a 32-hour workweek, defined-benefit pensions instead of 401(k)s, and company-financed healthcare in retirement.
In a new poll, Data for Progress finds that a majority of voters (62%) support the UAW strikes. This includes majorities of Democrats (79%) and Independents (59%), and a plurality of Republicans (48%).
We also find that support for the strikes is rising. Compared to the week before, when we asked the same question just after the announcement of the strike, support for the UAW strikes has risen from 55% to 62%, while opposition has dropped from 35% to 29%.
Notably, we find a 7 percentage point increase in support among Independents and a 10 percentage point increase in support among Republicans.
Our survey also tested whom voters trust more to support labor unions: Joe Biden or Donald Trump — both of whom have defended the striking autoworkers. We find that voters clearly view Biden as a stronger supporter of unions: 44% say they trust Biden more, while 29% say they trust Trump. However, more than one-quarter select “neither” or “don’t know.”
Independents also trust Biden more than Trump to support unions, by a 36% to 22% margin. However, more than 2 in 5 Independents (42%) report that they trust neither figure more or that they don’t know which one they trust more, indicating that the Democratic Party has a considerable opportunity to bolster support among Independent voters by standing alongside UAW workers.
These findings demonstrate that voters across party lines back the UAW strikes, that support is rising over time, and that voters clearly see Joe Biden as a stronger defender of unions than Donald Trump.
Lew Blank (@LewBlank) is a communications associate at Data for Progress.