Underpaid workers from local Atria Senior Living facilities protested today outside the home of Bruce Wasserstein, CEO of Lazard, Ltd. One hundred and fifty workers signed and delivered a petition, demanding better pay and treatment at the hundreds of Atria facilities around the country. Workers also condemned Wasserstein for taking a $100+ million payday last year while knowing about poor conditions at some Atria facilities and poverty wages for the company’s employees.

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Environmental activists and residents from around Pennsylvania staged a speakout Sunday at a Residual and Biosolids conference, calling for the expanded testing of Synagro sewer sludge, and for public reporting on its toxicity and disposal from the Carlyle Group, Synagro's private equity owner. "Community members don't know everything that is in the sludge dumped nearby," said Sue Fox of the Shrewsbury Township Environmental Protection Community (STEPCO) "Without more information, I worry about possible health effects and diminished quality of life. Until there is more scientific data and more testing that inspires real confidence, I think sewage sludge land application should be ceased. Sludge testing by the sewage treatment plants seems to me like the fox watching the chicken house."

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"Fat Cat" and Protesters Play Game "Billionaire CEO or Underpaid Worker?" Deliver Bags of $$$ to Wasserstein's Rockefeller Center Office New York, NY--Activists and underpaid workers from local Atria Senior Living facilities protested outside the Manhattan offices of Lazard, Ltd today. Workers condemned Lazard CEO Bruce Wasserstein for taking a $100+ million payday last year despite bad conditions at Atria facilities and poverty wages for the company's employees. A Lazard-affiliated private equity buyout fund owns Atria. "I live in a basement apartment in Queens and couldn't afford health care when I was working at Atria. I brought home $300 a week after 10 years at Atria, and this Wasserstein guy is making over $100 million? If he invested just a little of that in Atria facilities, they could increase staffing for residents, offer affordable healthcare and a living wage to hardworking employees," said Radika Munna, a former employee of Atria Lynbrook on Long Island who was fired on Thanksgiving Day after 10 years on the job because she was active in forming a union for a voice in care and working conditions.

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The announcement yesterday by Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ) that Bruce Wasserstein, CEO of Lazard Ltd. and a principal of the Lazard group of companies, has signed a new contract worth more than $100 million and will be paid more than $41 million for 2007 is leaving low-wage workers in shock at Lazard-affiliated Atria Senior Living. Tone-deaf to the growing concerns of working Americans about their financial security and the state of the economy, Lazard Ltd. is showering Wasserstein with a CEO pay package worth approximately 13 percent of Lazard Ltd.'s entire 2007 profit.

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More than a dozen striking workers from Aramark, a private equity owned company that serves and prepares food in New York’s corporate dining rooms, will march on the conference to draw a stark comparison between the workers –some of whom are expected to raise their families on as little as $400 a week—and the excessive bonus, wages, and fees paid to private equity managers and their consultants.

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When all the studies are said and done, the buyout business remains at its core a vehicle for the spectacular accumulation of wealth by the few without regard for the impact on others.

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As the economy and jobs top the concerns of American voters, a new, major, independent study on the impact of private equity buyouts on jobs is expected to be released this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The buyout industry exercises significant influence over American jobs and employment practices, with buyout firms, through their portfolio companies, comprising five of the top ten largest US-based private employers. The five largest US buyout firms alone own companies that employ an estimated 2.7 million workers. The new study, on the Economic Impact of Private Equity, is being led by Josh Lerner, professor at Harvard Business School, and Steven Davis, professor at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, who analyzed 5,000 private-equity transactions from 1980 through 2005.

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