Deals
Who's the Boss? Union Organizers Target Private Equity Owners
- Labor heads seek investors’ attention in resort dispute
- Reliance on public pensions makes funds ripe targets
Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.
Photographer: Wally Skalij/LA Times via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The Los Angeles hotel workers’ union is getting ready to take on a new incarnation of management: private equity.
Organizers are targeting the luxury resort Terranea, which was developed and is now controlled and operated by Lowe Enterprises, a real estate investment firm whose private equity arm manages more than $2.5 billion in assets. On Thursday, resort workers plan to confront their general manager and demand a fair process to unionize. They also plan to file a lawsuit accusing the company of failing to pay workers wages they’re owed -– the kind of illicit cost-cutting that they say exemplifies the worst practices of private equity -- and seek class-action status for the suit.