Groaner, that is precisely why the workers don't come up with productivity improvements in this environment. Any productivity gain they suggest is passed on as increased profitability to the company, not the workers. If you look at how things run in Germany, management & workers sit down and divide up the spoils together. This has allowed them to be highly productive, highly paid & with high profitability. If I recall correctly, they work less hours on average and have more holidays compared to rest of Europe.
There are solutions, but they need to avoid the current zero-sum game mentality, ie work with the workforce to improve profitability and share some of that additional profitability with them. Seems so simple doesn't it.