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Importance of unions

4 Feb 2014

Q. How important are unions for Australian working people today?

 

Total

 

Vote Labor

Vote Lib/Nat

Vote Greens

Vote other

Work full time

Work part time

 

19 Mar 12

10 Sep 12

20 May 13

10 Dec 13

Total important

61%

79%

44%

87%

60%

60%

72%

56%

52%

56%

57%

Total not Important

30%

17%

50%

8%

27%

34%

21%

35%

38%

36%

34%

Very important

27%

42%

11%

48%

25%

26%

31%

19%

16%

21%

22%

Quite important

34%

37%

33%

39%

35%

34%

41%

37%

36%

35%

35%

Not very important

21%

14%

33%

8%

18%

24%

14%

27%

28%

24%

22%

Not at all important

9%

3%

17%

9%

10%

7%

8%

10%

12%

12%

Don’t know

8%

5%

5%

5%

13%

5%

7%

9%

10%

8%

9%

The majority of respondents regarded unions to be important for Australian working people today (61%), whilst 30% believe that they were not important.  These results represent an increase in importance of unions since this question was asked in December – from net +23 to +31.

79% of Labor voters and 87% of Greens voters believed that unions were important for Australian working people today, while Coalition voters were the most likely to regard unions as not important (50%).

The majority of full time workers (60% – up 5%) and part time workers (72% – up 7%) regarded unions as important for Australian working people today.

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