Opportunity to Expand the Pie: Katz Op-Ed

Amazon and Starbucks should seize recent instances of unionization to expand the pie for both business and workers, Harry C. Katz urges in a Fortune magazine opinion piece.

“Management at Amazon, Starbucks, and elsewhere should avoid the defensive temptation to see the union as an outside third party that distorts worker-manager relationships. Union leaders should avoid seeing management as the enemy. Rather, collective bargaining can become a vehicle through which joint solutions to productivity, safety and health, scheduling, and workplace governance can be devised and effectively implemented,” wrote Katz, the Jack Sheinkman Professor and director of the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution.

“The task facing both labor and management bargainers is to promote their side’s interests while finding ways to expand the pie for everyone. Amazon and Starbucks should seize this opportunity to simultaneously improve their business and worker rights.