Aug 26 (Reuters) - Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan’s initiative to use antitrust laws to protect workers faces a key test on Monday when the agency will argue the merger between grocery chain Kroger (KR.N), and its rival Albertsons (ACI.N), would crush unionized workers’ bargaining power.
Khan and her fellow antitrust enforcers in the Biden administration have sought to use antitrust laws - deployed in recent decades mostly to protect consumers against high prices - to combat what they view as anticompetitive practices squeezing workers’ paychecks.
Labor has been an area of focus for Khan, a former law professor and congressional antitrust counsel, who took the reins of the agency in June 2021.