ROSEMONT, Illinois - "Hello Troublemakers!" That's inevitably the opening statement at conferences hosted by the Labor Notes organization. And so it was at the Chicago-area event in April 2014, led by Mark Brenner, the genial but provocative president of Labor Notes, who joined the activist organization in 2005.

That ultra-brief introductory salvo invariably stimulates a booming wave of applause from the overflowing audience of labor leaders, workers, and supporters of the shrinking but still-vibrant labor movement in the U.S.

They're noisy, they're colorful, they're tightly-focused. They're clearly pleased to be dubbed the Troublemakers: the union activists and labor backers who traveled to Chicago to participate enthusiastically in the 2014 Labor Notes Conference. It's a diverse group of workers and their advocates, who refuse to give up on the goal of labor advocacy, workplaces successes, and increased union membership.

Teachers drew the spotlight during the Plenary Session at the 2014 Conference, held at a Crowne Plaza hotel near O'Hare Airport, just outside the Chicago city limits. Especially members of the Chicago Teachers Union, led by the fiery and unstoppable Karen Lewis.

"You have to battle for the bread and butter for every single worker," Lewis told the enthusiastic audience, "whether they're unionized or not." As the American union movement continues to decline in numbers and power, "they're picking us off, one by one."

As Lewis explained the current union/management relationship, "they want you to read a passage with no context for it.... They want us all afraid.... You're in a country now where people say, you should be happy to have a job" of any kind. But rather than accept such disdainful advice, "it is our responsibility to hold leadership accountable."

Lewis received a standing ovation following her relatively brief remarks, accompanied by chants of "CTU." Mention of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, on the other hand, drew a barrage of boos. Emanuel has been considered a nemesis to the Chicago teachers.

Hedy Rosenstein, representing the Communications Workers of America from New Jersey, had a word of advice for the audience as Ms. Lewis left the stage: "One way is to get your bumper stickers: 'Will Teach for Food.'"

Speaking next was Tim Sylvester, president of Teamsters Local 804. "When I fight, I bring a crowd," Sylvester said, before describing the dispute between UPS workers and management in New York. Early in 2014, after UPS fired a driver with 24 years of experience, 250 fellow workers walked out in protest. All were fired, according to Sylvester. Most of those involved are still working, he explained, but have been issued replacement notices. UPS chose 20 at random and fired them outright.

"These charges will not stand," he warned. "I extended an olive branch. Now I've got the olive branch up my a__." UPS makes $4 billion a year, Sylvester advised. "We decided to send a different message: The concession stand is now closed." In what appeared to be an undeniable understatement, Sylvester noted that "negotiations did not go smoothly."

Stephen Chan, a Hong Kong dock worker, informed the audience of his efforts to organize at a subcontractor company in that country. After organizing a group of dock workers, Chan led a 40-day strike that involved some 500 people. Between 1995 and 2011, he explained, their salaries had decreased almost 30 percent, with no raises in 15 years. Dock workers are on the job 48 to 72 hours, to fit the ships' schedules. The company "only shared the pain," Chan said, "not shared the gain."

Concluding the evening's speaker list was a woman who'd worked at McDonald's in Chicago for four years, earning $8.88 an hour. She was among the group that went on strike in what became a stream of fast-food-workers walkouts early in 2014, seeking a $15 wage. "I was tired of the disrespect," she told the Labor Notes audience. "Tired of working for a [multi-billion-dollar] company and living in poverty." The strike was "one of the best days of my life," she added.

"As we grow, we are winning little victories," the McDonald's worker stated. "So right now, we're just baby troublemakers."

Talking About Taxation

In addition to the large evening gatherings, the Labor Notes conference presents dozens of smaller sessions, dealing with specific issues. Mark Brenner, head of the Labor Notes group, held one of the first, on opening day, called Talking Taxes.

"How did we get into this mess?" That was Brenner's opening question, leading to a summary of labor activity and growing inequality, dating back to the Depression years and the World War II era.

Brenner clarified each topic with the aid of a graph or chart, starting with corporate profits as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the early 1980s, he explained, corporate profits ran between 6 and 8 percent of GDP. By the early 1990s, they rose to 10 percent, before declining in 2001 due to a recession. In 2006, the figure grew to 12 percent; then dropped to nearly 9 percent in the wake of the 2007-08 financial debacle. By 2012, corporate profits totaled 12.5 percent of GDP. Now, Brenner advised, they're "past where they were before the crash."

The rapid decline in Union Density (union membership compared to the total workforce) is no surprise to Labor Notes members. In the early 1970s, unions were still growing strong, representing 24 percent of workers. But in the early 1980s, their influence began to sink, and kept on shrinking. Now, only about 11 percent of workers belong to unions. Furthermore, more than half of unionized workers are in the public sector, whereas 70 percent of all workers toil in private business. Today, if you're a public-sector worker, "you've got a big bullseye on your back," Brenner suggested.

Next up was a look at financial-sector profits, as a share of all corporate profits. Between 1948 and 1968, the financial sector doubled its share: from 10 percent to 20 percent. Then, starting in the 1980s, the system "went berserk." Immediately before the 2007-08 collapse, the figure neared 40 percent, before dipping sharply to just 10 percent. Temporarily. Recovery was quick, and the financial sector's share is now roughly back to where it was before the collapse, Brenner advised.

Brenner also looked at Wall Street bonuses, which totaled about $2.5 billion (paid to 150,000 people) in the 1980s. By 1994, those bonuses amounted to $6 billion, reaching as high as $11 billion during the 1995-98 period. By 2007, just before the collapse, bonuses amounted to a whopping $35 billion. Today, they're back down into the $20s.

CEO income versus average worker wages is another figure of compelling interest to Labor Notes members. In 1965, Brenner advised, the average large-corporation CEO took in 20 times as much as the average worker. By 1995, the CEO was grasping 115 times as much. The high point arrived around 2000, when an average CEO's income was 350 times that of the company's workers. After dropping to a mere 190 times as much in 2009, it's currently about 265 times the average worker's wage. In Japan, in contrast, an average CEO's income is 20 to 30 times that of a regular worker.

Taxation was the final element of Brenner's presentation. In 1945, corporate taxes accounted for 35 percent of the total amount raised by the government through taxation. A decade later, corporate taxes amounted to 25 percent. By 1980, a mere 7 percent of the total came from corporate taxation, though the figure eased up slightly, to 8 or 9 percent, by 2012.

Looking Backward at Labor

A session on labor history is a regular part of each Labor Notes conference. At the 2014 event, Jack Metzger, Ph.D., dealt with the "changing concepts of unions."

Union density has been in "long-term decline," Metzger began, which is "heart-sinking" to proponents of the labor movement. Only 11 percent of works now belong to a union, though 35 percent of public-sector workers are union members. "That's why [public workers] are now a target."

Between 1906 and 1921, union membership almost doubled, Metzger said, due largely to "tight labor markets." When the U.S. entered World War One in 1917, millions of men were removed from the labor force. At the same time, demand for war materiel escalated dramatically. "Tight labor markets are good for workers," Metzger noted. "Always." Whether those workers are unionized or not.

Then came the Red Scare of the 1920s, and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Despite allegations of unions being run by agitators, Bolsheviks, or communists, the labor movement flourished. Some of the most notable battles between labor and management took place during the Depression, including a number of memorable victories by labor.

The function of unions was changing, too. Founded in 1886, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had a "narrowed" vision of unionism, according to Metzger, stressing wages and working conditions. Other labor groups, such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Knights of Labor, were "much more expansive." During the 1930s, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was formed, focusing more generally on industrial unionism.

After World War II, in 1947, the Taft-Hartley Act established the concept of right-to-work states, setting the stage for decline in union membership and power. Density began dropping around 1954. In Metzger's view, the best union contracts signed at that time were not nearly as beneficial to workers as later ones would be. A few years later, at the time of the 1958 Recession, offensives against unions were becoming common. The postwar economic boom was essentially over by then, and anti-union attitudes were taking hold. Even so, Metzger considers the 1960s to be the "golden age of collective action," helped by the rise of the Civil Rights movement

That euphoria didn't last long. The mid to late 1970s saw the "beginning of the end for union power," Metzger explained, and shrinkage would continue as the 20th century gave way to the 21st.