My partner works as sort of a blend of IT and software development for a company based in the US. His team does application support and they started off as a team of 7 at the staff level (plus 2 managers) and now there are only 3 people left at the staff level because 2 people got new jobs within the company and 2 left the company altogether for other jobs. He also just learned through the grapevine that one of the remaining 3 may be far along in an interview process with another company, and may also be leaving soon.
The work his team does is critical to the company's function. The hold a lot of power with all of the software running smoothly, fixing bugs and issues in a timely manner, etc. They've been very overworked for a long time with high expectations, and it's only getting worse as the team shrinks. They also got abysmal raises and their bonuses were cut by 70% (yes, 70%) this year.
We're wondering what the best path forward is in this situation is. Him and the two other remaining staff want to approach management and ask for a raise/promotion. We think they have enough leverage to actually get something out of this. Right now all they can think is to schedule a group call with both managers, lay out how heavy the workload has gotten and how hard they've been working in the absence of so many people, and request all 3 of them get promotions and a 10% raise. Does anyone have ideas that may be more effective? They want to do something that will get them the best outcome without being illegal or putting them in a bad spot (for example I was wondering if they could threaten to quit, but would that actually be feasible/legal?). Thanks so much in advance.