[takinola]

"Sorry, there's no money" is not a complete statement. The more honest statement is "Sorry, there's no money for you".

Clearly, companies spend money on things (offices, factories, private jets, etc) other than salary increases all the time. The company has decided that its money is better spent on this thing rather than the other. Sure, workers might quibble about whether the money is better spent going to them but buybacks are not any different than any other thing the company is spending money on so it is not any more of a "fuck you" than other types of expenditure.