The Service Employees International Union recruited comedian Lewis Black to rant on video about leveraged buyouts and corporate tax loopholes. It's hard to pull off; the subject matter is difficult, and the staging is a bit awkward (although it's nice to see the Local 32BJ hat!). The main event the video is plugging is an international protest on July 17, to:
...demand accountability for private equity firms and the billionaires who run them.
The private equity firms these billionaires run are global in their reach and they have global impact on our communities. So we’re going global, too. Join thousands of people across the globe in taking on the buyout billionaires to take back the economy.
The S.E.I.U.’s latest effort is an escalation of a fight that began last April, when it began a broad campaign against private equity firms with a study questioning the value that the leveraged buyout industry adds to the national economy.
Since then, the union has trained its sights on two of the biggest private equity firms around — the Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts — as it seeks to clamp down on the handsome profits that those companies reaped during the buyout boom.
The union argues that buyout executives like David M. Rubenstein of Carlyle and Henry R. Kravis of Kohlberg Kravis have gamed the tax code, reaping huge gains by piling debt on companies their firms have acquired, only to deduct the interest from their corporate taxes.
S.E.I.U. officials acknowledge, however, that changing the tax code could upend the modern corporate regime and say they have not endorsed any specific proposals.
The union also argues that the attention on private equity firms has been justified by the huge role they now play in the economy. Companies owned at least in part by Kohlberg Kravis employ more than 816,000 people, according to the firm’s Web site — more than the population of San Francisco.
If the campaign succeeds at bringing to light the role these firms play in the modern economy, it will be providing an important service. If you don't know who is screwing you, it's easy to get mad at the wrong people...
As a side note... always fun to see a Jewish comedian helping a union with a Jewish president promote a campaign led by a Jewish organizer take on Jewish business owners, who in turn are supported by an industry lobbying group headed by... you guessed it!
