Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Americans have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of labor unions while 33% disagree and have an unfavorable view. Those figures, from a Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 adults, include 23% with a "very favorable" opinion and 12% with a "very unfavorable" view.

By way of comparison, 69% of Americans have a favorable opinion of a company the unions love to hate—Walmart. Twenty-nine percent (29%) have an unfavorable opinion of the retail giant.

Forty-eight percent (48%) have a favorable opinion of General Motors while 21% hold the opposite view.

The volunteer Minutemen who organized patrols of the Mexican border are viewed favorably by 54% and unfavorably by 22%.

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Fifty-three percent (53%) of men have a favorable opinion of labor unions along with 61% of women.

White Americans are less likely to have a favorable opinion of unions than others. Thirty-and-forty-somethings have less favorable views than those under 30 and over 50.

This year, 38% of Americans say they celebrate Labor Day as a time to honor the contributions of workers in society. Forty-five percent (45%) celebrate the holiday as the unofficial end of summer.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans say the summer of 2006 was good or great. Still, the nation's economic confidence declined over the summer and is down nearly 10% from the beginning of the year.

Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.

The Rasmussen Reports ElectionEdge™ Premium Service for Election 2006 offers the most comprehensive public opinion coverage ever provided for a mid-term election. We update the President's Job Approval Ratings daily and are polling every Senate and Governor's race at least once a month in 2006.

Rasmussen Reports was the nation's most accurate polling firm during the Presidential election and the only one to project both Bush and Kerry's vote total within half a percentage point of the actual outcome.

During Election 2004, RasmussenReports.com was also the top-ranked public opinion research site on the web. We had twice as many visitors as our nearest competitor and nearly as many as all competitors combined.

Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.

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