The Occupy Wall Street movement has launched its spring offensive in several cities around the world, including New York. Today's demonstrations began slowly in the rain, and some arrests have already occurred.

How successful Occupy 2012 will be in keeping the issue of wage inequity atop the political agenda is anyone’s guess. But here’s something to occupy your mind:

Far from the mass demonstrations, machinists at construction giant Caterpillar in Joliet, Ill., have walked off the job. Some 800 of 2,000 employees are represented by Local Lodge 851 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers, which objected to a contract offer that keeps wages flat for six years, raises health care premiums, strips seniority rights and substitutes a 401(k) plan for the company-supported pension plan.

Times are tough -- why don't those machinists just suck it up? Well, for one thing, Caterpillar is not a company on the ropes: It gave its CEO a 42 percent hike in compensation last year, to $14.8 million. According to one analysis of Caterpillar's financial picture, the company's net income rose 83 percent in 2011 to $4.9 billion, while its revenue grew 41 percent to $60.1 billion.

For a company to squeeze employees while it rakes in big profits is unconscionable. It’s the kind of corporate “leadership” that’s making the middle class a vanishing species. And it perfectly illustrates the growing chasm between the 99 percent and the 1 percent: The CEO hauls in a huge raise while workers – who, let us not forget, create the value in the company – get squat.

That’s not a knock on capitalism or a bid for “class warfare.” It’s a simple plea for a more just society – which is what the best of Occupy is all about.