After years of steady corporate profits, labor activists and unions 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, corporate profits and the cost of important expenses, notably health care and higher education. Wages increased only 2.6 percent per year between 2008 and 2018.

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

In Detroit, GM, Ford and Chrysler are all bracing for negotiations with the United Autoworkers, the union that represents 158,000 employees at the three auto companies. Collective bargaining contracts between the company and union expire in September and UAW members are agitating for pay raises. The automakers have made steady profits for years, but the companies point to a slowdown in car sales in the past year.

Overshadowing negotiations is a federal corruption probe into allegations that executives at Chrysler bribed UAW officials to go easy on them at the bargaining table.

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

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

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

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

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

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Corporate America braces for labor negotiations

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