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Ambushing Private Equity
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Carlyle spokesman Chris Ullman said the firm has had "productive relations with unions for 20 years." He attributed the SEIU's recent attention to its desire to organize 60,000 workers at Manor Care, an Ohio-based nursing-home company that Carlyle only recently acquired.
"The SEIU is frustrated over its inability to organize Manor Care in the past 12 years before we acquired the company three months ago," Ullman said.
The buyout firms note that even as the SEIU blasts them, it benefits from private equity. The union's New York affiliate, 1199, has given Carlyle $15 million to manage its pension fund. The SEIU said the money has been tied up in a Carlyle buyout fund since 2005, before the private-equity campaign.
Whatever the motives, the SEIU has found novel ways to attract attention.
A few days after the Waldorf gig, for instance, the SEIU bused dozens of members to Carlyle's Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters, where they stood outside chanting, "Better staffing, better care, no more money for billionaires."
In January, activists showed up at a Rubenstein speech at the University of Pennsylvania and shouted at him with bullhorns, bringing about a testy exchange between Rubenstein and one activist. When Rubenstein last December bought a $21 million copy of the Magna Carta that he gave to the National Archives, the SEIU instantly prepared a "Top Ten" list of why Rubenstein donated the Magna Carta, including labeling him "a medieval baron."
"There's always been a history of us doing really creative things to shed light on issues, which includes humor and absurdity," Lerner said.
Not everything works.
The SEIU endured a setback last week when California lawmakers withdrew legislation to stop California's giant public pension funds from investing new money with private-equity firms that are partly owned by countries with alleged poor records on human rights. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said the bill "would cause a deep wound to our retirement funds and government programs when we can least afford it."
