Carlyle’s Rubenstein draws union protest at private equity conference
Posted by: in Private Industry NewsFiled under: The Carlyle Group, Private equity industry
David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group was scheduled to speak at the Wharton Private Equity Forum in Philadelphia this morning, but his speech was disturbed by protesters from the Service Employees International Union. Eventually, the Philadelphia police arrived and ‘escorted’ the protesters away.
The protest was inspired by Carlyle’s buy of Toledo-based ManorCare, the largest chain of nursing homes in the U.S. (There’s a photo of the protest over at DealBreaker, featuring a massive banner that was unfurled at the conference, reading “Carlyle: Fix Manor Care nursing homes! NOW.”) A flier handed out by the SEIU at the protest asked Carlyle to “Put People Above Profits.” Seems that the union suspects that Carlyle might try to make money through other people’s suffering — and indeed make some people’s suffering worse in the pursuit of profits.
The union’s website dedicated to Carlyle and other private equity big shots says that it is “concerned that Carlyle’s business practices might put everyday Americans at risk by endangering public services, imperiling the environment, jeopardizing the health of vulnerable senior citizens, and supporting human rights abuses abroad.” Of course, SEIU isn’t alone is these concerns. Some Democrats have called for Congress to investigate the situation.
Apparently, Rubenstein was initially shocked by the protest, but recovered in time to mock the protesters’ proletarian language skills, urging one woman to “take a remedial course in English before you go any further.” His speech eventually got under way, and in it he admitted that the image of private equity is now “tarnished.” But private equity is about to enter a new golden age — actually, a “platinum age,” as he called it — and as long as private equity firms can do a superior job at promoting themselves and doing things like giving generously to charity, all should be well. After all, capitalism is a “combat sport.” An interesting sport, though, that requires police intervention to protect one side against the other.
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