It’s all so very jol­ly, except for one loom­ing fac­tor: wages. They’re not ris­ing. In fact, they fell in Decem­ber by 5 cents an hour , near­ly eras­ing the 6‑cent increase in November.

Hard-work­ing Amer­i­cans need a raise. Their wages are stuck, ris­ing only 10.2 per­cent over the past 35 years. Work­ers are pro­duc­ing more. Cor­po­ra­tions are high­ly prof­itable. CEOs, claim­ing all the cred­it for that as if they did all of the work them­selves, made sure their pay rose 937 per­cent over those 35 years. That’s right: 937 percent!

It doesn’t add up for work­ers who strug­gle more every year. Something’s got­ta change. The AFL-CIO is work­ing on that. It launched a cam­paign last week to wrench work­er wages out of the muck and push them up.

At a sum­mit called Rais­ing Wages held in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., last week, AFL-CIO Pres­i­dent Richard Trum­ka said, ​“We are tired of peo­ple talk­ing about inequal­i­ty as if noth­ing can be done. The answer is sim­ple: raise the wages of the 90 per­cent of Amer­i­cans whose wages are low­er today than they were in 1997.”

“Fam­i­lies don’t need to hear more about income inequal­i­ty,” he said; ​“They need more income.”

The meet­ing attend­ed by 350 union rep­re­sen­ta­tives, com­mu­ni­ty group offi­cials, eco­nom­ic experts and reli­gious lead­ers was the first of many that will be con­duct­ed across the coun­try by the AFL-CIO to spot­light the pain and prob­lems that wage stag­na­tion caus­es. The AFL-CIO will begin these meet­ings in the first four pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry states — Iowa, New Hamp­shire, Neva­da and North Carolina.

The idea is to ensure that can­di­dates, Repub­li­can and Demo­c­rat, can’t squirm out of deal­ing with the issue. And Trum­ka said labor won’t tol­er­ate sap­py expres­sions of sym­pa­thy. The fed­er­a­tion will demand con­crete plans for resolution.

Also last week, the AFL-CIO launched Rais­ing Wages cam­paigns with com­mu­ni­ty part­ners in sev­en cities — Atlanta, Colum­bus, Min­neapo­lis, Philadel­phia, San Diego, St. Louis and Wash­ing­ton, D.C. In addi­tion to seek­ing wage increas­es for all who labor, these coali­tions will pur­sue asso­ci­at­ed issues such as fight­ing for paid sick leave and equal pay for equal work.

At the same time, the AFL-CIO and allies will push for fed­er­al leg­is­la­tion to seri­ous­ly pun­ish employ­ers who ille­gal­ly retal­i­ate against work­ers and to pro­vide real reme­dies for work­ers unjust­ly treated.

At the sum­mit, work­ers told their sto­ries along­side experts. Among them was Col­by Har­ris, who suf­fered ille­gal retal­i­a­tion. A mem­ber of OUR Wal­mart, he was fired last year after par­tic­i­pat­ing in strikes for bet­ter conditions.

“They are try­ing to silence peo­ple for say­ing we need bet­ter wages and ben­e­fits. The aver­age Wal­mart work­er makes less than $23,000 a year. These com­pa­nies have no respect for their work­ers,” Har­ris told the group.

Anoth­er speak­er, Lakia Wil­son, said that work­ers can do every­thing right, work hard, fol­low all the rules and still lose out in this econ­o­my. The Detroit native earned a bachelor’s degree in edu­ca­tion and a master’s in coun­sel­ing. While serv­ing as a school coun­selor, she took a sec­ond job as an adjunct pro­fes­sor at a com­mu­ni­ty col­lege to make enough mon­ey to qual­i­fy for a home mortgage.

But then, in a cut­back at the col­lege, she was laid off. She lost the extra income, and the bank began fore­clo­sure. It was, she said, a hor­ri­ble, humil­i­at­ing expe­ri­ence. She cashed out her retire­ment to save her home. Now her cred­it and retire­ment are shot. This hap­pened to her, and to so many oth­ers, she said, even though they ​“did every­thing nec­es­sary to get a good job and get the Amer­i­can dream.”

U.S. Sen. Eliz­a­beth War­ren talked to sum­mit atten­dees about why the econ­o­my does not work for peo­ple like Wil­son and Har­ris. Though this econ­o­my is splen­did for those who own lots of stock, it’s not for the vast major­i­ty of work­ers who get their income from wages.

Sen. War­ren point­ed out that the econ­o­my didn’t always work this way. From the 1930s to the 1970s, she said, work­ers got rais­es. Nine­ty per­cent of work­ers received 70 per­cent of the income growth result­ing from ris­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. The 10 per­cent at the top took 30 percent.

Since 1980, how­ev­er, that stopped. Nine­ty per­cent of work­ers got none of the gains from income growth. The top 10 per­cent took 100 per­cent. The aver­age fam­i­ly is work­ing hard­er but still strug­gling to sur­vive with stag­nant wages and grow­ing costs.

“Many feel the game is rigged against them, and they are right. The game is rigged against them,” Sen. War­ren said.

The rig­ging was adop­tion of Ronald Reagan’s voodoo trick­le-down strat­e­gy. That eco­nom­ic plot puts mas­sive cor­po­ra­tions, Wall Street and the 1 per­cent first. Politi­cians bowed down to them, leg­is­lat­ed for them, dereg­u­lat­ed for them. In return, the wealthy were sup­posed to chuck a few measly crumbs down to workers.

They did not. Work­ers got nothing.

Despite that, work­ers still get last con­sid­er­a­tion. That, Sen. War­ren said, must be reversed.

Accom­plish­ing that, clear­ly, is a David vs. Goliath chal­lenge. David won that con­test, and work­ers can as well — with con­cert­ed action. Papa John’s work­er Shantel Walk­er told the sum­mit such a sto­ry — one of vic­to­ry against a giant with col­lec­tive action.

She dis­cov­ered that a teenag­er at the New York fran­chise where she worked was putting in time that was not clocked. The restau­rant was steal­ing wages.

Walk­er helped orga­nize a protest at the restau­rant. Between 80 and 100 peo­ple ral­lied for jus­tice for the young work­er. And they won. The restau­rant paid the teen. ​“Now is the time to stop the pover­ty wages in Amer­i­ca,” Walk­er said; ​“Raise the wage!”

Trum­ka said the AFL-CIO and its allies will demand that of law­mak­ers. He said they would insist that leg­is­la­tors ​“build an Amer­i­ca where we, the peo­ple, share in the wealth we create.”

For that to occur, law­mak­ers must serve the vast major­i­ty first. They must stop func­tion­ing as hand­maid­ens to the rich in an eco­nom­ic scheme that has failed the 99 per­cent from the very day the 1 per­cent got Ronald Rea­gan to buy it.

The AFL-CIO and its allies intend to help law­mak­ers see that they must pri­or­i­tize the needs of America’s workers.