http://finance.yahoo.com/news/poll-californians-gradually-souring-unions-140907645.html
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- California has long been a union stronghold, but voters in the reliably 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 figures represent a turnaround from a 2011 Field survey, when more voters said unions resulted in more good than harm.
The shift comes at a time of ongoing labor conflicts in the state and nation, often involving government employee pensions and retirement benefits. It also tracks a long-running national trend, in which support for labor unions has gradually slipped.
Retirement costs for government workers contributed to bankruptcies in three California cities in recent years — Stockton, Vallejo and San Bernardino — and municipal budgets have been squeezed by growing worker benefits and pay. In the San Francisco Bay Area, two transit strikes this year caused headaches for hundreds of thousands of commuters.
In many communities "public pensions are starting to crowd out the services that local governments can provide. That doesn't sit well with the public," pollster Mark DiCamillo said.
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