Friday, January 9, 2009

Food for thought: Public attitudes towards unions

I've come across a growing number of people in Ottawa who might normally label themselves as generally pro-union and, especially recently, wary of some of the City's budgetary objectives.

But that same group are now turning against ATU 279 and siding with City council, however reluctantly. I tend to think that this group makes up a sizable portion of the 89 per cent of Ottawans recently polled by Harris-Decima who apparently support the City's actions.

It would have been interesting for that poll to ask "Are you generally sympathetic to unions?" Except in a more poll-friendly, and less loaded, way.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nick, I have been thinking the same thing!

If this was a conflict between some level of government and, say, the maintenance staff at City Hall, a teacher's union, police, or paramedics, I would wager that a much larger percentage of people would be pro-union. But since the OC Transpo strike negatively affects just about everyone in the City, we're a lot less likely to be sympathetic, myself included. It's hard putting this all into perspective and maintaining neutrality.

Anonymous said...

It's an unjust cause, and as Sun Tzu would've told them, they should never have gone to war.

They've already lost, whether or not they know it.