What role do labor markets play in advancing economic opportunity in America? Research has found that market concentration enables employers to wield outsized power to impact wages and economic growth, with implications on workers’ livelihoods, autonomy, and bargaining power. In recent years, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has investigated how mergers, no-poach agreements, and other anti-competitive employment practices affect labor market competition and subsequently, workers and their families. From poultry farms to booksellers, the agency has devoted significant resources to enforcing competition in labor markets across a range of industries since. Yet the agency’s commitment to competitive labor markets is not a novel turn within the realm of antitrust law – rather, as the DOJ Antitrust Division’s Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki described, “timely and effective antitrust enforcement in labor markets is not only grounded in the rule of law, but also faithful to Congress’s intent.”
The Center for Labor and a Just Economy is proud to feature Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mekki in conversation with Sharon Block, Professor of Practice, in a discussion focusing on how the agency has approached applying long-standing competition principles to labor markets and what the horizon may look like for antitrust enforcement in the fight to promote and defend workers’ rights.
This event will be held in person – RSVP required. Reception to follow. A recording of the discussion will be available online after the event.
