If they could simply pass on wage increases won by striking workers to consumers, they wouldn't battle the workers, in the first place. High prices are often blamed on monopolies and price fixing conspiracies, but this also is not true. Monopolies are illegal and price fixing is not long tolerated by the government since it represents the interests of the whole capitalist class, and such behavior has a damaging effect on the whole system. The primary explanation for the failure of most commodities to reflect the decline in their value with lower prices, is the erosion of the value of the dollar . In other words, the dollar's erosion is taking place at a faster rate than the cheapening of the value of the commodities.
Inflation is a condition where the price of everything else goes up as the dollar goes down.
Once upon a time it was generally understood that monetary inflation meant a debasement or depreciation of what people used for money. Thus Henry VIII conceived a scheme for paying off the Crown's debts with debased coins. Before 1543 the English pound sterling had contained less than 1 ounce of alloy to 12 ounces of silver, and coined into 45 shillings. Prices, of course, rose reflecting the debasement. A swindle of that size cannot be kept from the people.