Californians Adopting Increasingly Negative View of Unions

Shift in opinion comes amid latest labor conflicts

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California has long been a union stronghold, but voters in the strongly Democratic state are gradually taking a more negative view of organized labor, a poll released Friday suggested.

The independent Field Poll said that by a narrow margin, more voters said unions do more harm than good, as opposed to those who see organized labor as generally beneficial.

The slide in support represents a turnaround from a 2011 Field survey, when more voters said unions resulted in more good than harm.