“But the grand goal is to increase union pay that is above minimum wage since many, if not most, are tied to the minimum wage.”
What is interesting is that the unions are in many cases exempt from new min wage laws thus allowing the unions to bid lower than the non-union section.
The bidding process in Wisconsin is tied to the “prevailing wage”, which means the job doesn’t go to the lowest bidder squeezing out he smaller non-union companies. Hence all the big contracts go to the largest unionized companies. They collude and divide the jobs based on where the job is to be done geographically, especially to road projects. The two major road builders bid but one gets all the contracts in the east and south, the other gets the west and north.
I have not ever heard of a union shop bidding a job lower that non-union shops.