HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (PAI) - A record high percentage of Americans view unions positively, but few know about management's anti-union tactics, a new poll shows.

The survey, of 1,602 randomly selected respondents, by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, told the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Hollywood, Fla., that Americans "feel positive towards unions" by a 42-22 percent margin. The rest are neutral, pollster Guy Molyneux said.

Precisely 10 years ago, when that question was first asked, the pro-union margin was 35-34, with 31 percent neutral. All three figures were within the 3.5 percent margin of error for both the 1993 survey and the 2003 survey.

Approval of unions produced even stronger numbers, the 2003 survey showed: a 66-22 margin in February. That's up from a 56-26 edge six months ago and a 55-35 margin in 1981, the first time the question was asked.

But positive views of unions don't necessarily translate into pro-union votes in workplaces, Molyneux added. Given a free vote without a management anti-union campaign, 53 percent of respondents would definitely or probably vote union, while 41 percent would not.

And when respondents learned management opposed organizing campaigns, unions lost by a 14-point margin in the survey.

Most Americans don't know management can campaign against unions, much less get away with firing workers for supporting them, the poll showed. By a 77-12 margin, they said employers should stay neutral in union organizing drives.

"But no more than 35 percent recognize" that employers don't stay neutral, and engage in everything from illegal firings to spying to delays of union elections, he added.

"This is the challenge for the labor movement. The American people have no sense of what employers do and would have a strong sense of the changes that would be needed" to level the playing field for organizing, Molyneux concluded.