BY Chris Shelton, Opinion Contributor.
The coming decision about whether to allow Microsoft’s merger with Activision Blizzard to move forward is a bellwether for American antitrust policy. By approving this merger, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has the opportunity to make a strong statement in favor of economic democracy and provide a blueprint for an enforceable remedy to protect workers from large employers abusing market power to undercut wages and working conditions.
Labor considerations have for too long been absent from antitrust decisions even though the potential harms to workers as the result of mergers are evident. From the start, President Biden made clear that things would be different on his watch. Restoring the American middle class by strengthening unions has been a top priority for his administration, and the president issued an executive order calling on the Department of Justice and the FTC to strengthen antitrust guidelines to address labor market concerns, with a particular focus on the tech sector.
