New polling by the Economist/YouGov finds that even after Donald Trump gave a speech to union workers in Detroit rather than participating in the second presidential debate, Americans are more likely to believe that Joe Biden sides with the United Auto Workers (UAW) in the union's strike than that Trump does (48% vs. 22%). This is especially true for Democrats — 62% say Biden sides more with the striking auto workers while 11% say Trump does — and also the case among Independents (43% vs. 19%). Republicans are equally likely to say Biden (39%) and Trump (40%) side more with UAW than with auto manufacturers.
More Americans say the Democratic Party (46%) is the political party more likely to side with the UAW than say it is the Republican Party (14%); 13% say the parties are equally likely to side with the union.
Americans continue to be more likely to side with both the striking auto workers and striking actors than with the companies they're opposing in the labor actions. Republicans — who hold less positive views than Democrats and Independents about unions in general — side more with the actors' union, SAG-AFTRA, than with studios and streaming services.
— Carl Bialik contributed to this article
See the toplines and crosstabs from the Economist/YouGov poll conducted on September 30 - October 3, 2023 among 1,500 U.S. adult citizens.
Methodology: Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel using sample matching. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
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