MADISON, Wis. — Workers across multiple industries marched around Capitol Square together Saturday, with messages of support for one another and calls for action.

Maeve Perkins is an employee at Starbucks and a member of Starbucks Workers United. She said she’s been energized by a recent surge in labor movements across the country and in Wisconsin.

“I mean, so many people are organizing,” Perkins said. “We have the UAW strikes. We have everyone here today. It’s such a lively time for organizing and for the Union.”

Perkins’ union and others all came together for the rally. While many were there to promote their own causes, the focus was on unity for all workers.

“There’s a saying in the labor movement, that an injury to one is an injury to all. Workers come together because bosses try to divide us. That is their strategy,” said Joe Evica, a member of Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 39 and an organizer of the rally.

Evica said the recent increase in strikes and formation of new unions represents a shift in attitudes.

“The sentiment’s been there,” he said. “For years, I think people have been wanting to organize. And finally, action is kind of catching up with sentiment across the country.”

He said support from the public is catching up too.

“I think that people are recognizing more and more that their employers are only there in order to extract profit from them,” Evica said. “People are trying to take back some of the value that they produce every day for their employers.”

Perkins said now more than ever, it’s important for workers to support one another as they fight for fairness.

“Unions are about coming together, right?” she said. “So even if we’re part of a different union, part of a different company, we will win more if we come together and we fight together instead of just all being separate unions by ourselves.”