Reddit mentions of The Everest Politics Show: Sorrow and strife on the world’s highest mountain (Footsteps on the Mountain Diaries)

Sure, first of all, all Nepalese aren't Sherpas. Sherpas are an ethnic group originating from the high valleys of eastern Nepal and Tibet. The main region where they live is the Khumbu valley (close to Everest) among a couple of other valleys, although they are spread throughout Nepal, Tibet, Sikkim and Bhutan. Due to their natural higher red blood cell count (when you acclimatise your red blood cell count increases, so your blood can transport more oxygen throughout your body), they were hired to help out with early expeditions throughout the Himalayas back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. And it has stayed that way. They are quite wealthy compared to many other Nepalese, but still earn coffee money compared to the western expedition leaders and guides. And it really varies between guiding companies what they get paid and how they are treated, but in general most big companies (Jagged Globe, Altitude Junkies, Himex, IMG, etc) these days really take care of their Sherpas. The Sherpas are highly regarded by most western climbers, because without them there are no chance in hell that they would be able to do all these high altitude climbs. Sherpas are simply an amazing people.
Now the problem is that many Asian companies (Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese) doesn't treat their Sherpas as good, and many times disregard helping out setting up routes etc. I think this might have changed at least at Everest, where it is mandatory (I think) to pay the Ice Doctors that set up the route through the Khumbu Icefall and further up the mountain. But I don't know if this has changed in the rest of the Himalayas the last couple of years or not though, as most of the diaries I've read about this are usually close or older than a decade now (and to be honest, all have been from western climbers).
The biggest problem is not the climbers though (that many times ends up being very close friends with the Sherpas), but the Nepalese government that is completely corrupt. Climbers have to pay a quite high fee to be able to climb the mountain at all, think it is around $10k. This money rarely gets reinvested in Nepal or goes towards better rights for the guiding Sherpas. So part of the rebellion wasn't really about the climbers but towards the government. It is also a big tragedy when a Sherpa dies because he leaves behind a family that no longer will have an income. They get a very small amount from the government that won't last long. I think better life insurance was one of the things they demanded. Luckily there are foundations like The Juniper Fund run be famous mountaineer Melissa Arnot Reid, that helps families that has lost a member of the family.
So to end this comment, never trust a news paper when they write about this stuff. The journalists are rarely mountaineers, have rarely even been in the Himalayas or talked with Sherpas, are often bias and in general don't know a fucking thing about the subject. This is specially true for the plethora of know it all columnists etc. I can really recommend reading Mark Horrell's dairy The Everest Politics Show which is about the tragedy of 2014, this is a first person account as he was there trying to climb Lhotse (which shares base camp with Everest) at the time. He was even on his way up to the Icefall when it happened. I can also recommend his book, Seven steps from Snowdon to Everest if you are at all interested in mountaineering or trekking.