The pendulum is swinging again when it comes to Republican approval of unions. A new Gallup poll reflects a downward slide to 41%, which is a downshift from 2022, when that number sat at 56%, and 2024, when it was 49%. This news also arrives when certain union presidents have scrambled to align themselves with parts of the current Republican platform.
That Gallup poll could portend political fallout from the disorienting dance between some Republicans and Big Labor. On the union side, newbie GOP fans include the UAW’s Shawn Fain, who has been cheerleading for Trump’s tariffs, and Teamsters’ Sean O’Brien, who spoke at the RNC.
Then there are two prominent GOP politicians and the lane that they have picked to varying degrees, which will bring us to potential complications from the poll.
Vice President J.D. Vance
Trump’s right-hand man positioned himself as a pro-worker conservative, and Sean O’Brien did praise Vance, but several other union leaders didn’t buy what he was selling.
In 2023, the former senator from Ohio picketed with UAW members next to Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who might have shaded Vance by asking, “First time here?” Then in 2024, Vance lamented the “tragedy” of falling union membership, but more than one publication has rounded up Vance’s contradictory stances including opposing the PRO Act.
In comparison to Vance tiptoeing alongside Big Labor, Sen. Josh Hawley has recently been going all out to embrace unions.
Hawley’s “Pro-Labor” Shift
Over the past few years, the senator from Missouri forged a public bond with Sean O’Brien. It’s still a surprising development that emerged after Hawley was predicted to be in reelection danger. As such, it seems fair to view Hawley’s policy shifts as geared toward self-preservation in his home state, where GOP voters are reportedly friendlier than average toward O’Brien. If Hawley was indeed “pandering” for 2024, he did so in his favor, at least in the short term.
He and O’Brien then kicked off 2025 as strange bedfellows with Hawley’s now-infamous op-ed, “The Promise Of Pro-Labor Conservatism” and their collaborative “pro-worker framework,” which proposed to ban so-called “captive audience meetings” and mandate quickie union elections. This led to Hawley’s Faster Labor Contracts Act (FLCA) bill, which aims to remove bargaining power from employers. Tellingly, the FLCA was co-introduced by Sen. Cory Booker and supported by other Democrats.
Considering the next steps for these leaders’ shifting stances
In the lead-up to Hawley’s reelection, his additional abrupt policy shifts include opposing right-to-work laws, which he previously supported. And presumably, his Big Labor flip-flopping helped him keep his gig, but what will Hawley and Vance’s positions on unions do for their Republican future?
Both politicians have been trying to carve out working-class-friendly, populist images in accordance with Trump-style messaging. Yet Trump 2.0’s policies are not exactly labor-friendly. He has left NLRB without a quorum for most of 2025. His executive orders have also effectively nixed collective bargaining rights from at least half a million federal workers.
Add those facts together with waning Republican voter support for unions, which suggests that Hawley and Vance are in danger of not only alienating those who are skeptical of their union stances but also the GOP voter base.
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