Unions’ Goals Enjoy Surprising Support
Despite their anti-union reputation, Orange County residents tend to support organized labor, with half saying most strikes are justified, a Times Orange County Poll has found.
By a nearly 2-1 ratio, jobholders who live in the county agree with the statement “The way most companies work, the only thing management cares about is profits, regardless of what workers want or need.”
In California’s most heavily Republican county, and in which about half the jobholders describe themselves as managers or professionals, the topic was sensitive for some poll participants questioned in follow-up interviews.
One pro-union woman didn’t want her name used because her husband’s future as an executive is less secure after his well-known company merged with another.
“I don’t trust big business to have a big conscience unless it’s forced to. And that’s what unions do,” said the woman, who owns a prospering small business that serves some of Southern California’s best-known large companies.
The poll also found that union membership in Orange County is about the same as in the rest of the country. Of the 600 jobholders interviewed, 19% said they, their spouse or both belong to a labor union, compared with 18% nationally.
Edward Montgomery, chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor, said he was surprised at Orange County’s attitude toward unions “because of its conservative Republican reputation.”
*
He said, though, that surveys have shown a national opinion drift toward unions. The recent Teamsters drivers strike against United Parcel Service of America, with its emphasis on lower-wage, part-time jobs, “certainly supported the feeling that unions have something to say,” Montgomery said.
“There’s some anxiety about downsizing and that wage increases haven’t been what we expected,” he said. “I think people do see unions as playing a role in balancing things.”
The Times poll, conducted by Mark Baldassare and Associates, surveyed 600 adult jobholders from Orange County over five days in September. The margin of sampling error was 4 percentage points for the overall group, higher for subgroups.
The survey was conducted within weeks of UPS’ settlement of its contract dispute with the Teamsters, whose strike had enjoyed wide support.
Baldassare said he too was surprised by the degree of positive feeling toward unions in Orange County.
He said the attitudes might well have been less positive had the UPS strike been less popular with the public.
Whatever the reasons, 44% of Orange County residents believe unions are needed today, while 39% say they are not. More than half of part-time, clerical, sales and blue-collar workers express approval, along with 37% of professionals and managers.
Even among the professional and managerial workers, opinion is split on whether strikes are generally justified.
Similar results from previous polls have helped encourage union leaders like AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to make recruitment their No. 1 goal.
The Orange County poll is “pretty consistent with what we’re seeing nationally,” AFL-CIO spokeswoman Denise Mitchell said. “People believe that corporate behavior really has changed. They talk about things like seeing no loyalty on the part of companies anymore.”
Bill Fogarty, secretary-treasurer of the Orange County Central Labor Council, said inquiries about organizing workers have increased recently.
Fogarty said interest is high among professionals--some pharmacists and insurance agents have unionized--and he even referred a call from some stockbrokers to a local organizer recently.
*
Union membership has fallen for decades, especially in nongovernmental workplaces. One of every three U.S. workers was unionized from the mid-1940s through the mid-1950s, but fewer than one in six are in unions today.
Two years into Sweeney’s organizing drive, the unions list many successes and predict their efforts will pay off. So far, though, “we’re still seeing this steady slippage” in the proportion of unionized workers, said Daniel Mitchell, a labor professor at UCLA’s graduate management school.
With its high concentration of white-collar jobs and the growth of typically nonunion industries such as medical equipment and electronics manufacturing, Orange County is easy to categorize as a wasteland for organized labor.
But another job mainstay, tourism, has been strongly unionized since Disneyland opened. Nonsalaried employees at the 42-year-old theme park are all in unions, as are many workers at hotels and other related businesses.
And as elsewhere in Southern California, many government, supermarket and aerospace workers are represented by unions.
*
Indeed, while Orange County often holds out against unions--Kaiser Permanente nurses in Anaheim are virtually the only ones in Southern California who aren’t unionized--there have been notable union victories here as well, including the organizing of Mexican immigrant drywallers.
Mergers, middle-manager layoffs, top management turnover and Orange County’s monumental bankruptcy all have shaken the trust of workers, creating openings for unions, said Rob Bekken, a Newport Beach lawyer who represents companies in labor matters.
“Mistrust is what unions feed on,” Bekken said. “If your credibility and consistency [as an employer] has been eroded, you’re dead.”
Despite the surprising support, opposition to unions is also deep-seated in Orange County.
Craig Rutter, a 26-year-old marketing analyst whose Irvine company sells backup power systems to businesses, said he voluntarily works 50-hour weeks “to get ahead” and believes the labor movement is “archaic.”
“It takes qualified people and holds them back, and takes unqualified people and promotes them to where they shouldn’t be,” Rutter said. “It doesn’t allow for natural selection in the business environment.”
Nor do the downsizing trends toward “leaner” corporations always result in more favorable views of unions among workers.
Lawrence Welty of Anaheim, who buys supplies for an oil company, said his job responsibilities and stress have grown markedly over the past 10 years, as decisions once made by higher-ups in an off-site office have been entrusted to him.
With the extra responsibility has come a change in his job status from hourly, with guaranteed overtime, to salaried with no overtime.
Welty says his take-home pay hasn’t changed much, but he does like one change: incentive pay to reward good performance.
With unions, he says, “you can have some real good workers and some real bum workers, and they all get paid the same. This way, the good ones at least can get some reward.”
But the poll showed Orange County residents are more inclined to side with Alice Swierce, 42, of Aliso Viejo, who raised two children by holding a variety of part-time jobs since the 1970s. She now works as a unionized grocery clerk.
“It’s better with a union,” said Swierce, whose husband works for the city of Santa Fe Springs.
“Everything is spelled out, what’s expected--no gray areas. And the pay is better, and benefits are real good.”
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Union Support, but Not Much Presence
Just one-fifth of the Orange County work force is unionized, but there is a good deal of sentiment in support of unions and what might be considered union positions. That backing is more common among clerical/sales personnel and blue-collar workers than with professional/ managerial types:
* Do you think labor unions are needed or not needed today?
*--*
Prof./ Cler./ Blue Total manager sales collar Needed 44% 37% 52% 50% Not needed 39 47 31 31 It depends 10 10 11 12 Don’t know 7 6 6 7
*--*
* What is your opinion of strikes by labor union members? Do you think union members are generally justified or not justified when they go on strike against their employers?
*--*
Prof./ Cler./ Blue Total manager sales collar Justified 47% 41% 51% 54% Not justified 34 39 31 26 Don’t know 19 20 18 20
*--*
* The way most companies work, the only thing management cares about is profits, regardless of what workers want or need.
*--*
Prof./ Cler./ Blue Total manager sales collar Agree 63% 55% 66% 77% Disagree 33 43 30 18 Don’t know 4 2 4 5
*--*
* Do you, or your spouse if you are married, belong to a labor union?
Yes, respondent: 11%
Yes, spouse: 5%
Yes, both: 3%
No: 81%
Source: Times Orange County Poll
About the Staff
Staff writer E. Scott Reckard covers workplace and real estate news for The Times. A graduate of Pitzer College in Claremont with a bachelor of arts degree in English, Reckard worked for the Associated Press for 14 years--the last seven as a business reporter--before joining The Times in March. Reckard, 47, lives in Laguna Beach with his wife, Andrea Adelson, a part-time reporter for the New York Times who works from home, and their two children, Daniel, 8, and Margaux, 6. He can be reached at (714) 966-7407 or by e-mail at scott.reckard@latimes.com
Staff writer Marcida Dodson covers medical and health news for The Times. She has been a reporter and assistant city editor during her 19 years at The Times. After growing up in Orange County, she graduated from the University of Missouri with a bachelor of journalism degree. Dodson, 44, lives in Irvine with her two sons, Jeremy, 10, and Alec, 5. She can be reached at (714) 966-7712 or by e-mail at marcida.dodson@latimes.com
Staff photographer Rick Loomis has been with The Times three years. He graduated from Western Kentucky University with a major in photojournalism and a minor in Latin American studies. Originally from West Palm Beach, Fla., Loomis, 28, lives in Costa Mesa. He can be reached at (714) 966-7772.
Tracking This Series
Here is an at-a-glance summary of this week’s three-part Times Orange County Poll:
Sunday
Orange County is a great place to work, if you have a high-paying, cutting-edge job and can afford the benefits of its new economy.
Monday
Half of Orange County residents are having trouble balancing the demands of work and home, which is better than the rest of the country.
Today
Orange County’s reputation may be anti-union, but people are generally positive about organized labor and believe companies care more about profits than workers.
How the Poll Was Conducted
The Times Orange County Poll was conducted by Mark Baldassare & Associates on Sept. 3-7, on three weekday nights and two weekend days. Random telephone interviews of 600 adult jobholders from Orange County took place in English and Spanish. The sample reflects the demographic composition of employed residents of Orange County households. The margin of sampling error overall is plus or minus 4 percentage points. For subgroups, such as part-time employees or blue-collar employees, the margin of sampling error is larger. All participants were guaranteed anonymity; some agreed to be re-interviewed for news stories.
* Contributing to this report was Times staff writer Marcida Dodson.
