News

UNI global union today (February 8) condemned the millions of pounds of quick profit already made in the stock market frenzy around a possible bid from private equity groups for J Sainsbury.

“The Sainsbury sweepstake should stop right now,” said UNI’s General Secretary Philip Jennings. He condemned “rodeo capitalism that rewards the speculators and punishes decent companies and their workers with uncertainty”.

UNI is calling on national regulators like the FSA in Britain to investigate the dangers to financial stability of the growing wave of private equity buyouts - often financed by pensions funds.

UNI also wants responsible companies protected from the leveraged buyouts that present the final bill to the victim enterprise. “Performing companies are put in hock by many of these buyouts while some private equity groups are prepared to squeeze to the last drop.”

UNI has accepted an offer - made in the letter column of the Guardian (7 February) - of a meeting with the Chief Executive of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Peter Linthwaite.

Last November global unions - including UNI - meeting in Switzerland agreed to campaign to drive private equity groups out of the shadows and to tackle the threat they pose to employment and the long-term health of companies.