GM, Ford and Chryslerare all bracing for negotiations with the United Autoworkers, whileairlines are feeling pressure from flight attendance and pilots.(Photo: Shutterstock)

After years of steady corporate profits, labor activists andunions are pressuring companies to share more of the bounty with workers.

Unemployment has dropped below 4 percent, but wages have not kept pace with productivity, corporateprofits and the cost of important expenses, notably health care andhigher education. Wages increased only 2.6 percent per year between2008 and 2018.

Even worse from the perspective of rank-and-file employees:executive compensation has continued tosoar.

Related: What is monopsony, and how does it affectwages?

In Detroit, GM, Ford and Chrysler are all bracing fornegotiations with the United Autoworkers, the union that represents158,000 employees at the three auto companies. Collectivebargaining contracts between the company and union expire inSeptember and UAW members are agitating for pay raises. Theautomakers have made steady profits for years, but the companiespoint to a slowdown in car sales in the past year.

Overshadowing negotiations is a federal corruption probe intoallegations that executives at Chrysler bribed UAW officials to goeasy on them at the bargaining table.

Flight attendants and pilots are also putting pressure on majorU.S. airlines, which have also enjoyed prosperity, to share thewealth. Airline workers say they have taken pay cuts in response todownturns in the past –– notably after the September 11 attacks ––but they have not enjoyed commensurate raises when times have beengood.

While unionization in America hit a low of 10.5 percent in 2018,unions have encountered success in certain industries. There hasbeen a flurry of successful union drives in print and online media,driven largely by younger employees. In the last few years workershave voted to unionize at the LA Times, the New Yorker, New YorkMagazine, the Chicago Tribune, Slate, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed,Vice, and a number of local newspapers.

An increasing number of workers have pushed for higher wagesthrough non-union organizing tactics.

In May drivers for Uber and Lyft engaged in a one-day strike inprotest of low pay. Similarly, the Fight for 15 movement has soughtto pressure the fast food industry by encouraging workers atMcDonald’s, Burger King and other popular chains to walk off thejob for the day.

Amazon’s decision last fall to raise its minimum wage to $15 anhour has not stopped workers at the giant retailer’s facilitiesfrom pushing for more. Last month employees in Minnesota walked offthe job for six hours during Amazon’s Prime Day, a major sale.

Read more: 

• Uber and Lyft drivers to strike: A new labormovement?
• Wages are up as employers try to enticejob-hoppers
• 10 states with the biggest gap between wages andrent