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Government is using YOUR pension money (if you are a government employee) to harass a private firm for the benefits of union goons.
"A CalSTRS letter asks the billionaire chairman of a private equity firm that owns Hilton Hotels to “personally address the board in open session” if there is no progress in a lengthy labor dispute at hotels in San Francisco, Chicago and Honolulu.
The California State Teachers Retirement System has $1.8 billion committed to the Blackstone Group, one of the nation’s largest leveraged buyout firms. Its chairman and chief executive offer is Steven Schwarzman.
Blackstone’s purchase of the famous hotel chain for $26 billion in 2007, with $20 billion borrowed or “leveraged” from seven banks, has been called “a poster child for overpriced acquisitions of the era” by the Wall Street Journal."
As a stockholder, CalSTRS (the teachers’ pension plan) has a right to inquire about management decisions. But this is not a real stockholder; it is the government, holding stock. And government, in California is owned by the unions. This is blackmail--either do what we want or we will tank your company.
At some point my guess is that private firms will stop allowing government to invest in their firms. This letter is a bad idea for the employees expecting a pension. If CalSTRS gets their way, in their real goal of controlling the corporations of America, the pensions will lose money and workers lose pensions.
CalSTRS has $52 billion in unfunded liabilities. And growing--this will make it worse. It looks like we need financial, not political management of our government pension plans.
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"A CalSTRS letter asks the billionaire chairman of a private equity firm that owns Hilton Hotels to “personally address the board in open session” if there is no progress in a lengthy labor dispute at hotels in San Francisco, Chicago and Honolulu.
The California State Teachers Retirement System has $1.8 billion committed to the Blackstone Group, one of the nation’s largest leveraged buyout firms. Its chairman and chief executive offer is Steven Schwarzman.
Blackstone’s purchase of the famous hotel chain for $26 billion in 2007, with $20 billion borrowed or “leveraged” from seven banks, has been called “a poster child for overpriced acquisitions of the era” by the Wall Street Journal."
As a stockholder, CalSTRS (the teachers’ pension plan) has a right to inquire about management decisions. But this is not a real stockholder; it is the government, holding stock. And government, in California is owned by the unions. This is blackmail--either do what we want or we will tank your company.
At some point my guess is that private firms will stop allowing government to invest in their firms. This letter is a bad idea for the employees expecting a pension. If CalSTRS gets their way, in their real goal of controlling the corporations of America, the pensions will lose money and workers lose pensions.
CalSTRS has $52 billion in unfunded liabilities. And growing--this will make it worse. It looks like we need financial, not political management of our government pension plans.
More...