Teamsters Crash Private Equity Conference, Tell CD&R to Stop Hurting American Workers

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International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Jan 29, 2010, 10:30 ET

NEW YORK, Jan. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Representatives from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters attended the Private Equity Conference 2010 today at Columbia Business School to raise awareness of Clayton Dubilier & Rice's (CD&R) unregulated, short-term business model and its effects on U.S. workers.

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Teamsters distributed information to attendees detailing racial and gender discrimination, as well as labor violations at CD&R's portfolio company U.S. Foodservice. Union representatives also asked pointed questions about CD&R's management of U.S. Foodservice.

U.S. Foodservice is the nation's second largest foodservice distributor with 26,000 employees -- 4,000 represented by the Teamsters Union -- with annual revenues of $20 billion. CD&R and KKR purchased the company using $2.1 billion in equity and $5.0 billion of debt. In the years following the buyout, labor relations soured, leading to numerous violations of U.S. labor law throughout the country.

Recently, the National Labor Relations Board in Phoenix charged CD&R and KKR's U.S. Foodservice with nearly 200 federal labor law violations. In May 2009, U.S. Foodservice agreed to a settlement, including hiring back 14 illegally fired workers, and provided more than $163,000 to 22 workers who were refused work by reason of discrimination. Even after the settlement, workers continue to be subjected to unlawful threats, disparate treatment and termination.

"CD&R needs to take its responsibility to American workers seriously," said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President. "The private equity model of short-term profit, unsustainable debt and labor law violations ruin companies' ability to provide good jobs and contribute in a positive way to our economy."

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters was founded in 1903 and represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters