Public Support for Strikes Declines in Practice
Two new polls on British attitudes towards striking industries provide for a telling insight into opinion on strikes. Savanta finds 13% net support for strikes, down 8% on October. Taking the most comparable figure from Ipsos MORI's poll, net support sits at -3%, down 19% from September. This adds to the pre-existing evidence, which suggested that although voters were inclined to support strike action in theory, they were less supportive of the consequences. This is driven home by the unpopularity of Christmas rail strikes, with Savanta finding 56% oppose them.
It is also clear who the public holds responsible for the strikes. Savanta finds 40% blame the government and 37% blame unions, compared to just 11% who blame workers. Ipsos finds, meanwhile, that net sympathy is highest for railway passengers (+78%) and workers (+30%) and lowest for train companies (-23%), Network Rail (-24%) and the Government (-39%). The public is split over the role of Unions, as they come in with +4%.
The results from the Ipsos poll are perhaps not surprising: it's likely voters will be more inclined to feel sympathy towards groups of people rather than organisations. Though the persistently low support and high blame for the government doesn't bode well for their fortunes. Whilst these polls haven't asked about opinion on the Labour party in relation to strikes, based on this evidence it's hard to see how strikes would be anything other than a negative for the Conservatives.
Ipsos MORI also took a look into public support for specific striking workers. This is graphed below, with all of those above the dashed line seeing net positive support.
Unsurprisingly, nurses come out top, with firefighters, teachers, posties and refuse collectors all seeing support. Barristers and civil servants are the strikers with the least support from the British public. The findings also corroborate the fact that opinions are hardening: support for strikes declined in every industry which had also been asked about in September. The average change in support by industry was -8.5%.
The most evident takeaway from these polls is a cooling of attitudes on industrial action. As strikes continue over the Christmas period, it begs the question: how much further will support drop? Public opinion plays a key role in both decisions to strike and bargaining calculations, so this will no doubt influence the dynamic. Whilst unions may be concerned by their declining support, the government isn't faring any better.
