Even Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal Finds Strong Support For Union Collective Bargaining Rights

The minions who work for Murdoch and Zuckerman like to say that Americans are sick and tired of the "gold-plated benefits" union members have and are ready to strip collective bargaining rights from public employees unions.

Today, the Wall Street Journal releases its own poll showing that is not so:

Americans strongly oppose efforts to strip unionized government workers of their rights to collectively bargain, even as they want public employees to contribute more money to their retirement and health-care benefits, the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows.

Eliminating collective bargaining rights for public-sector workers over health care, pensions or other benefits would be either “mostly unacceptable” or “totally unacceptable,” 62% of those surveyed said. Only 33% support such limits.

The results don’t bode well for Wisconsin’s newly elected Republican governor, Scott Walker, who is locked in a standoff with statehouse Democrats and unionized state workers over these rights. Many of the Republicans gearing up to take on President Barack Obama in 2012 have seized on the budget battle in Wisconsin, a crucial swing state, as evidence the country wants to dramatically scale back government spending.

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Similarly, 77% of the 1,000 adults interviewed for the poll think unionized state and municipal employees should have the same rights as those union members who work for private companies.

Those are very strong numbers in support of the right of unionized workers in the public sector to collectively bargain and have the same rights as unionized workers in the private sector.

It's interesting how this fight in Wisconsin seems to be clarifying so much on union issues.

The CW from the asshats in the Beltway on the TV is that Americans hate unions and are ready to dispense with them.

But like most CW, it is bullshit through and through.

When even the Wall Street Journal poll shows this, I think you can say that we have incontrovertible data showing this is true.