Why are so many Americans fearful/resentful of unions?

[frazzled]

56. I think mostly because so few people belong to one today ...

and because they themselves have so few protections in their jobs: no job security, no defined-benefit pensions (except what they manage to contribute to their own IRAs, which could evaporate in a bad economic climate when they retire), no hour limits or overtime (my daughter-in-law was putting in 70 and 80 hour weeks at her job, in the office, for a flat salary, no overtime), etc. And this includes not just low-wage workers at fast food restaurants but often professionals, non-profit workers, salespeople, etc.

So people (a) don't understand these hard-won benefits and (b) are jealous of them.

I think unions (both the few private ones left and the public ones) need to understand this aspect of the condition of the majority of American workers in order to better communicate. They need to advocate as much for the wider public's lack of job protections as for their own if they want to gain the public acceptance. They need to be communicating that they are setting the example and working for the betterment of all labor, not just their own interests. Sometimes today it feels no longer like a "movement" but like self-protection. And that's not going to win as many hearts and minds.

A pension, for instance, is something that the vast majority of Americans can only dream of ... a relic of the past that evaporated for most workers decades and decades ago. Unions have to do more to educate the public.