what America needs is for us to work together to invest, create good jobs, and build a shared future where all of us can retire with security and dignity…too many private equity funds exploit investors and treat employees as expendable, hurting them and the economy as a whole.

“Earlier this month, Steward Health Care, a major hospital chain, filed for bankruptcy.

             Like so many other bankruptcies in recent decades, it followed the purchase of the chain in a leveraged buyout by a private equity
               fund that controlled a large stake in the chain between 2010 and 2020. 

American workers who both invest in and work for entities controlled by private equity. Our members’ retirement funds have over $4 trillion invested. And those funds rely on a healthy economy and broad-based economic growth to fund our long-term obligations to our participants.

We agree with the Biden administration that private equity needs greater transparency, fairer fees, and a business model that grows strong businesses and creates good jobs—not one that exploits workers, loads companies with debt, and sells them off for parts.

Educators, nurses, and construction workers rely on defined benefit pension funds to ensure they can retire with security and dignity. They look to Wall Street for investment expertise, and we expect loyalty to our members in return. That is what fiduciary duty is: loyalty and care.

Strangely, some pundits seem to think that when the acting secretary of labor encourages pension fiduciaries

                  to look at data and ask hard questions—about fees, performance, labor standards, and the economic model that private equity is 
                   pushing—it is somehow “bullying.” 

It’s no surprise that the last time retirement funds raised these issues, we were attacked by some of the same players who are attacking us now.

Let’s look at who’s really doing the bullying.

           Far too many private equity firms have developed a reckless track record of worker abuse, union busting, and child labor. 

This behavior has led to business failures that undermine the foundations of our economy’s success—good jobs and economic
security for ordinary people—and betrays the very funds they profess to serve.

           Some on Wall Street argue that the only way for pension funds to make money is to exploit workers and communities. 

But while that kind of thing may work for Wall Streeters in the short run, it’s not a viable strategy for pension funds that invest long term across the entire economy.

https://fortune.com/2024/05/31/pensions-american-workers-private-equity-firms-hard-questions-labor-finance-politics/