For years, Andy Stern, former president of the SEIU, supposedly fought for the little guy against the evils of the corporatists. Stern, often described as “unapologetic about targeting private equity firms” or “shaming business leaders,” now apparently wants to sit on the other side of the table, working on behalf of what one writer calls “organized labor’s historic enemy,” – wait for it – “private equity.”
It was recently announced that Stern had been appointed to the board of SIGA Technologies, and awarded 25,000 stock options. Ron Pearlman and his private-equity firm MacAndrews & Forbes, are the largest shareholders in SIGA Technologies.
It also doesn’t seem to matter to Stern (or to the Obama administration, for that matter), that his new gig creates a conflict of interest with his position on the Obama’s deficit commission. SIGA, as a biowarfare defense contractor, is in direct competition with other public priorities for federal dollars, as savings from cuts the panel recommends to social programs could be used to fund defense and homeland security spending.
The irony does not seem to bother Stern. Looking back at his history of his dealings with Pearlman, particularly the between the SEIU and several of Pearlman’s companies (such as AlliedBarton). It appears Stern has been feathering his nest for years, at the expense of the labor movement he purported to champion. It seems that Stern has always been a champion of, well… Stern!
