FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES DEALBOOK BLOG

Back in the 80s, a Japanese company’s ownership of 30 Rockefeller Center in New York was often cited as evidence that an Asian power was subsuming the United States economy. Since then, of course, the storied building has reverted back to American hands, and Japan’s economy has gone through a years-long recession.

Now, a major labor union is raising red flags about the acquisitive ways of a different economic juggernaut — the private equity industry — using Times Square in Manhattan as a case study.

The Service Employees International Union on Wednesday was taking journalists and others on a double-decker bus tour of Times Square, pointing out how many assets there are, or were recently, in the hands of private equity. It was somewhat reminiscent of the rallies that were often held in front of 30 Rock, but in this case, it is more than just one building: It’s a whole slew of businesses, many of them household brand names.

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FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES CITY ROOM BLOG

In the 1990s, when the Giuliani administration enforced quality-of-life laws, drove out the squeegee men and shut down sex-themed shops, some social critics warned of the impending Disneyfication of Times Square.

Well, by some lights, a Disney takeover of Times Square does not look all that bad now. Two events today — a union-sponsored “Private Equity Bus Tour” of Times Square, and a “Save the Garment Center” campaign by business owners alarmed about the “gentrification” of their swath of Midtown — highlight what seems to be a growing concern about the vast concentration of wealth in Manhattan and, specifically, how that prosperity is reshaping the landscape, real estate.

The Times Square bus tour, which began just before noon, was organized by the Service Employees International Union, which recently started a “Behind the Buyouts” Web site intended to draw attention to the growing power of private equity. 

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FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

Others in organized labor say that unions could do more in using the influence of their pension funds.

“Pension funds can be enormously influential in calling for investments that are both fair and can provide returns,” said Stephen Lerner, assistant to the president of the Service Employees International Union, a politically active group that represents nearly two million workers. (The S.E.I.U. itself has only a few small pension funds, he added.)

The S.E.I.U. has recently been vocal about its concerns over buyouts, but Mr. Lerner said that the union was not inherently hostile to private equity.

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from the New York Times
edited by Andrew Ross Sorkin

In Europe, private equity firms are accustomed to feeling the heat from unions. Now, the temperature is rising in the United States as well.

The Service Employees International Union, which represents nearly two million workers including health care employees and janitors, on Tuesday released a report that takes a skeptical look at the private equity industry. While the report stops short of being openly hostile to buyout firms, it sets forth a series of “public policy concerns” related to the recent run of large buyout deals.

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In Europe, unions have been organizing street demonstrations against the power, influence and wealth of private equity firms.

In the United States, union sentiments are running in the same direction. But instead of taking to the streets with European-style demonstrations or to the barricades like the cotton-mill union organizer of the 1979 movie ["Norma Rae"], unions in the United States have embraced the tactics of technology — the Internet.

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