06-04-a-Market Top Wires

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Excerpt from news.google.com

Supermarket chain Kroger is suing a federal agency in a daring move that aims to weaken how Washington fights mergers that threaten to jack up prices on consumers.

The lawsuit alleges the Federal Trade Commission is violating the US Constitution by using an in-house tribunal to challenge Kroger’s $25 billion mega-merger with Albertsons — the biggest proposed supermarket deal in American history.

The FTC typically enforces antitrust in one of two ways: It can sue companies and take them to directly to court, or it can attempt to use its own in-house administrative law judges to issue a ruling or reach a settlement outside of court. In the case of Kroger, the FTC actually pursued both options, seeking to block the merger in court and make a ruling on it with its in-house administrators.

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Excerpt from news.google.com

More than 17,000 AT&T workers in nine states across the Southeast are on strike after accusing the company of unfair labor practices during contract negotiations this summer.

The Communications Workers of America — the union representing the striking employees — said workers walked off the job Friday in response to AT&T’s failure to bargain in good faith. Workers have been attempting to reach a new contract since June. The labor organization said AT&T did not send representatives to the bargaining table who had authority to make decisions and that the company has reneged on agreements made in bargaining.

“Our union entered into negotiations in a good faith effort to reach a fair contract, but we have been met at the table by company representatives who were unable to explain their own bargaining proposals and did not seem to have the actual bargaining authority required by the legal obligation to bargain in good faith,” Richard Honeycutt, vice president of CWA District 3 in the Southeast, said in a statement.

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“Unconstitutional”: Kroger sues Federal Trade Commission ahead of merger court hearing  Salon

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Excerpt from Variety

Large media conglomerate 21st Century Fox continues to contend with fallout from disclosure of an unsavory corporate culture at its Fox News operations made when former chief Roger Ailes left the unit last year, and is believed to have reached a $2.5 million settlement with a Fox News Channel contributor who alleged that she was the victim of sexual assault by an executive, according to a report in The New York Times.

The report, which cites people briefed on the agreement, said Tamara Holder, a former Fox News contributor, reported allegations this past fall that an executive at the unit tried in February of 2015 to make her perform oral sex. The executive, alleged to be Francisco Cortes, the vice president for Fox News Latino, had his employment terminated after Fox investigated Holder’s claims, the Times report said. Holder left Fox News after her contract expired in early January of this year.

Fox News has been a source of conflagration for its parent company. One the one hand, the cable network’s popularity with Republicans has made it a major contributor to 21st Century Fox profit. On the other, a bevy of allegations of sexual harassment made since former anchor Gretchen Carlson accused Ailes of similar charges last summer, suggest the company is still grappling with the issue. Ailes denied the allegations.