People’s World zeroes in on a new report issued by Economist Marshall Steinbaum from the University of Utah that delves into the proposed mega-merger of Grocery Chains Kroger and Albertsons in ways that have not been fully looked at over the past year.  This is important information for any people involved in researching, reporting on or assessing the potential impacts that such a mega-merger could have.  Marshall Steinbaum’s new research paper, which utilizes a large database of posted job offers, demonstrates the Kroger-Albertsons merger would reduce the individual Worker’s bargaining power as well as their Union’s power.  The paper shows increased employer concentration has negative effects on both earnings and work hours.  And the paper shows Union Workers receive significantly higher pay when there are two bargaining counterparties in a given labor market as opposed to when there’s only one.  The Presidents from California United Food and Commercial Workers Locals 5, 7, 324, 400, 770 and 3000 - who have been leaders in the efforts to oppose the proposed merger since it was announced over a year ago, provided support for the report: “Our ability to raise wages and standards in general depends on our ability to pit these companies against one another at the bargaining table - threaten to Strike one while directing customers to the other.  If these two companies were to become just one company, that power would go away, and that harms Workers, as well as customers.”

The full report, entitled: Evaluating the Competitive Effect of the Proposed Kroger-Albertsons Merger in Labor Markets, can be found here.

To Directly Access This Labor News Story, Go To: Economist reports proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons not healthy for labor – People's World (peoplesworld.org)