Taking on the Buyout Industry
Union Chief Pressing for Better Pay and Benefits at Private Firms
Private equity firms say SEIU President Andy Stern is targeting them to organize more members and get more dues.
(By David Scull -- Bloomberg News)
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Andy Stern, 57, is president of the 1.9-million member Service Employees International Union, the fastest-growing union in North America.
He began working as a social service worker and member of SEIU Local 668 in 1973 and rose through the ranks before being elected SEIU president in 1996. He led SEIU out of the AFL-CIO and founded Change to Win, a 6-million member federation of seven major unions.
Stern is the author of "A Country That Works" and has a blog on the Huffington Post.
The SEIU, with headquarters on Massachusetts Avenue in the District, for the past year has been trying to force the private-equity industry, and the Carlyle Group of the District in particular, to increase pay and benefits at the companies they own.
Private-equity firms like Carlyle charge that the SEIU just wants to organize employees at those companies.
Staff writer Thomas Heath recently caught up with Stern.
Q: What do you think the next president should do to improve the economy?
A: Our country is living through the most profound, most significant and most transformative economic revolution in human history. We need an economic policy that rewards and values hard work again in this country. We need to end tax breaks for corporate CEOs and companies that move jobs overseas, and invest in the middle class. We need to create good jobs with wages that will support a family; make quality, affordable health care available to every man, woman and child; and ensure that working people are able to retire with dignity.
Why did you come out for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton?
This is about more than one election. It's about building for the next generation of America. Barack Obama is creating a broad and deep coalition of voters that our members believe will change this country and create a new American Dream.
Why is SEIU so focused on the buyout industry?
The buyout industry is one of the most powerful forces in the economy today. Through their portfolio companies, buyout firms are five of our country's 10 largest private employers. After Wal-Mart, KKR is effectively the second largest U.S. employer. KKR has a responsibility to improve the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people who work at the companies it owns.
