A majority of Americans support higher pay for auto workers who are on strike against Detroit’s Big Three carmakers, although approval of the workers’ other demands is more mixed, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The poll found that 36% of Americans sympathize with the workers in their dispute with the automakers, 9% support the automakers, and the rest back both or neither.
Support for the autoworkers fell short of the 55% support for striking Hollywood writers and actors in an AP-NORC poll conducted last month.
Still, the new poll adds to evidence of U.S. support for labor unions during a year marked by strikes in Hollywood, a walkout that was narrowly averted by Teamsters at United Parcel Service, and now the picket lines outside auto plants.
A disruption in the plants starting now can very much affect vehicle prices next year. Prices at the dealers still haven't normalized since the pandemic vehicle shortage era, and the dealers would love even more of an excuse to keep prices artificially high.