Wisconsin’s workers might be riding a new wave of unionization, but they’re still swimming against the tide, said Laura Dresser, a labor economist and associate director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison think tank COWS. She pointed to the ways corporations have consolidated power in recent decades, gaining market share and suppressing wages.
“I don’t want to give the impression that this is some sort of workers’ paradise in any sector,” Dresser said. The tight labor market gave employees some additional power, “but there’s a lot of ways that power has shifted against workers over the last 40 years that one year doesn’t really make up for.”