Right to Work and Public Opinion, Who Cares?
As Indiana lawmakers get ready for the joint House and Senate committee hearing on “right to work” (RTW) today, I got to thinking about the Ball State poll that was done on the subject. It has been the only independent poll on the subject. As part of its 2011 survey, the Bowen Center for Public Affairs surveyed a number of topics important to Hoosiers, including whether they support RTW. You’ve probably seen or heard about the results by now.
- 26.9% – Support RTW legislation.
- 23.6 % – Oppose RTW
- 47.8 % – Didn’t have an opinion.
- 1.8% – Refused to answer.
Based on those figures RTW opponents have tried to argue that the public doesn’t know about RTW and if they did they would oppose it, thus the Indiana House Democrats desire to hold their hearings on RTW across the state.
However, there is a difference between not knowing something and not having an opinion on a subject. Here is the text from the actual question…
The state legislature is preparing to vote on right-to-work laws that would make it illegal for labor unions to collect dues from employees who choose not to join the union. Some people say right-to-work laws would bring more jobs to Indiana and allow workers to hold onto money that now goes toward union dues. Other people say right-to-work laws will result in lower wages for all employees in Indiana and that states with right-to-work laws have higher unemployment than states without such laws. Do you support the passage of this legislation, oppose it, or don’t you have an opinion?
Seems pretty straightforward, don’t you think? In addition, if you study the demographics of those surveyed, they don’t come across as unintelligent. 61% of them said they pay either very close or some attention to the Indiana General Assembly, which means there is no plausible way they could not be familiar with RTW based on last session’s walkout. They are familiar with the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements by wide margins. And politically speaking, they were divided about evenly between Republicans, Democrats and Independents.
So one could argue these are not unintelligent individuals, from the survey they came across the way most people do, busy but interested in what goes in the news. And if you ask people where 61% say they pay attention to the Legislature and 48% don’t have an opinion on RTW, one could argue that only real opposition to RTW isn’t the average Hoosier, but the typical union member.
A copy of the Bowen survey can be downloaded here.
