A majority of Americans in a new poll back the UAW's unprecedented auto strike as GOP union support grows

• The UAW's strike has garnered considerable support from Americans.
• Biden visited the picket line, and polling shows a more-positive bipartisan stance on unions.
• It's indicative of a shift in how Americans view the labor movement in the post-COVID-crisis era.

It's difficult to find an issue with bipartisan agreement in today's economy. But an unlikely contender has entered the ring.

In a Reuters-Ipsos poll of Americans, some 58% of respondents said they supported the United Auto Workers union's strike at the Big Three Detroit car manufacturers. The study surveyed 1,005 people and was conducted between September 19 and 20.

That support was surprisingly bipartisan. While 72% of self-identified Democrats said they supported the strike at specific Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis factories, 48% of Republicans reported being in favor of it. That exceeded the 47% of GOP members reporting opposition.

Even some Republican lawmakers have said they support the union's demands for 40% raises and an end to the tiered wage system.

Aside from this strike, support for labor unions has been increasing on the right. Annual polling from Gallup indicates Republican approval of labor unions has been climbing since 2016, with a noticeable uptick after the onset of the pandemic. A decade ago, 34% of Republicans said they approved of labor unions; in 2023, 47% expressed approval.

In addition, President Joe Biden became the first sitting president in modern history to visit a picket line last week, joining striking GM workers outside a factory in Metro Detroit.

All these elements combine to highlight a shift in public perception around workers' rights, which accelerated amid the pandemic. While it would go too far to say the entire country is adamantly pro-union, the rise in approval rates and appearances of elected officials on the picket line signals a big shift after years of a declining labor movement.

"The overall sentiment is that yes, Republicans and all Americans believe a hard day's work should mean you get a fair day's wage," Alice Stewart, a veteran Republican strategist for several presidential campaigns and a CNN political commentator, told Insider.

She added: "The more we can do to help create jobs and create better-paying jobs, the better it is for the economy of this country."

While conservatives may prefer that advancement is done through the free market, she said, "clearly many people are seeing a benefit in what unions have been able to do to create better jobs and better-paying jobs."

John Drake — the vice president of transportation, infrastructure, and supply-chain policy at the right-leaning US Chamber of Commerce — told Insider "every American can relate to getting a 40% pay increase" or wanting to increase their benefits.

"I think these are universal," he said. "I think these are things that a lot of folks can identify with."

UAW President Shawn Fain is rallying his members with a broader message around the labor movement writ large, pitting the middle class against the "billionaire class."

"We're not going to wreck the economy," Fain said at a rally in Detroit at the onset of the strike earlier this month, addressing criticisms from executives who say the union's demands are too outlandish. "We're going to wreck their economy because it only works for the billionaire class."

If this rhetoric sounds familiar, it's because Fain leaned heavily on a group of Sen. Bernie Sanders' former campaign staffers to craft his communications strategy going into the quadrennial contract negotiations this summer.

The UAW's strike represents a culmination of issues that have come to a head in the post-COVID-crisis labor movement, labor experts told Insider. Building off the progressive movement started by Sanders, organized labor is focusing on a message around widely held worries about fairness in the modern economy.

"There's a deep concern about economic inequality in this country and the problem of the very, very, very rich being the only ones benefiting from productivity gains and technological gains," Kate Andrias, a labor-law expert at Columbia University, told Insider.

Politics on the picket line

The post-2016 rise of Sanders, a longtime labor supporter, can be partially credited to Democrats' changing opinions toward unions.

After Sanders showed up at the strike, so did Biden — a historic step from a president and one that shows the political sway of the movement.

Now even some Republican elected officials are showing up to support UAW workers' demands — even if they don't necessarily agree with its leadership.

"I don't want them to just have higher wages next year. I want them to have a job five years from now," Sen. JD Vance, a Republican from Ohio, previously told Insider. "They're going to go make demands on GM and Ford, and Ford is going to" reject them, he said, adding: "Because all your jobs are in China. We don't need you guys."

Christian Sweeney, the AFL-CIO's deputy director of organizing, told Insider that he'd been an organizer for about 25 years "and the support for unions now is really radically different."

From 1997 through 2009, the number of elections where workers voted to be represented by a union fell by 48%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Today, "we're in a different phase of the history of the American labor movement," Sweeney said, adding that the newest generation of workers were "some of the most pro-union workers that have ever entered the workforce."

Drake of the Chamber of Commerce, however, said the way this was playing out might make businesses more reluctant to entertain having any sort of union representation.

"The reality of this is that a lot of businesses are looking at these negotiations going forward, and I think they're appalled," he said, adding: "The UAW has to be really careful because they may win the battle but lose the overall war because a lot of companies are going to look at unions and think to themselves, 'I don't want that happening to me.'"

Indeed, the UAW has a lot to prove following a yearslong federal criminal investigation that sent several prominent UAW leaders to prison. The union is looking to claw back its influence not just in the automotive industry but also as a leader in the labor movement.

Carolyn Nippa, a 26-year GM employee who also went on strike in 2019 over plant closures, said she felt more energized by the union's demands this time.

"It's our time," Nippa told Insider. "We did our part to try to help the company — we saved the company — and we're just asking back what we gave up."

When adjusted for inflation, the average automotive-manufacturing wage has fallen some $10 an hour from its peak of about $42 an hour in 2003, according to data compiled for Insider by Jason Miller, a Michigan State University professor of supply-chain management.

All this happens as the burgeoning electric-vehicle sector creates organizing opportunities.

"To the extent that the UAW is able to win a strong contract, that works as a message to nonunion workers about the advantages of organizing," Andrias said.

Fain appears to recognize this opportunity, using his platform to speak often with people outside the UAW who support its cause.

"Striking for a better future to protect our communities and to defeat corporate greed is not just our right. It's our duty," Fain said on a Friday livestream with more than 60,000 viewers. "We invite you to stand with us on the picket line if you support our cause."