Because I do, and if they only care about me as an economic output machine then why should I care about them?

Put another way, if they aren’t matching inflation, should I reduce the work I do correspondingly?

Because people are not perfect incarnations of idealized concepts. Employers are people who exist in society who have concerns beyond the bottom line. That many or well more than most employers have forgotten this fact is at the core of what is wrong with work, corporate America, and capitalism in general.