>>Even in the "good old days", labor in the U.S. won a rather Pyrrhic victory in that organizing became shoehorned in a narrow legal framework with narrow goals. It makes the decline of union power same rather inevitable.

The union movement completely captured US industry and extracted exorbitant benefits that crippled the golden geese of the US economy.

The only reason private sector unions declined in membership is that the industries they exploited saw their US-based operations contract, or disappear altogether.

Meanwhile, the public sector unions have steadily grown in power, and steadily increased their control over public policy, by successfully pushing for successively more left-wing governments:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/social-spending-oecd-long...

And the result has been detrimental to the efficiency of public spending, whether you look at education:

https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/111/3/671/1839...

Or policing:

https://academic.oup.com/jleo/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jl...

Or any other public sector.