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UNI Global Union is alarmed by last week’s news report that Bain Capital is the leading contender to purchase Telefonica`s Atento division. Atento largely employs workers in call centers across Latin America and Spain.



Bain Capital is one of the world’s leading a private equity firms which has a track record of purchasing companies only to fire thousands of employees, cut benefits, and in many cases force the company into bankruptcy, all in the name of making money exclusively for Bain and its investors.



“Telefonica owes it to its Atento employees to find a responsible buyer that will preserve jobs and conditions as well as work with the unions to promote positive industrial labour relations,” said Philip Jennings the General Secretary of UNI Global Union. “ Bain Capital is not that buyer. Atento is likely to be another example of one of its hit and run jobs.”



Atento has more than 150,000 employees mostly in Latin America, with the largest number of employees in Brazil and Mexico. In Brazil the Atento workers are represented with a collective agreement by UNI affiliated Union FENNETAL and have developed a positive relationship with management.



In Mexico, Atento workers have attempted to organise within UNI affiliate STRM but Atento has blocked a fair election and has relied upon a “Protection contract ” to shield it from a legitimate union. In El Salvador, workers who lead an attempt to organise a union at Atento were summarily dismissed and have not yet been able to return to work.



Bain Capital has received increased media scrutiny as of late as it was founded by the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 1984. The attention has focused on the impacts of private equity ownership and what it has meant for the employees after the firm has bought the company.



Stage Stores, a retail goods chain is one example where Bain Capital bought the company in 1988 and only to send it into bankruptcy in 2000 eliminating more than 6000 jobs. But not before Bain Capital made more than $175 million in profit.



In another example, Bain purchased circuit board maker Detail Inc. in 1997. By 2003 the company was loaded with hundreds of millions in debt and filed for bankruptcy due to Bain`s management. Thousands of workers lost their jobs. Again, Bain made more than $90 million in profit.