Likened by some to a plague of locusts, private equity funds have emerged as major owners of companies in the IUF and other manufacturing and service sectors. The top global buyout funds now control more overseas assets, and employ more workers, than the traditionally ranked leading TNCs. Trillions of dollars in recent years have gone into acquiring, restructuring and disposing of the companies, often with a catastrophic impact on employment and working conditions. With 2007 now being talked about as the year of the hundred billion dollar "deal", leveraged buyouts cast a long shadow over our sectors and the global economy as a whole.

Unions internationally are now responding and fighting back. The IUF has opened a new web site - Private Equity Buyout Watch - to strengthen our collective response. On the site, you'll find news of private equity developments and acquisitions in the IUF sectors, reports on union campaigns, organizing and bargaining strategies in response to leveraged buyouts, and updates on key developments in the campaign to contain and roll back private equity through political and regulatory tools.

It's time the truth got out.  Anti-union organizations and for-profit 'unionbusting' consultants have greatly contributed to workers experiencing enormous obstacles when trying to form unions.  The rise of these groups over the last few decades, their multi-million dollar budgets, and their escalating attacks are no coincidence:  it's the result of a decades-long plan from right-wing ideologues bent on dismantling labor organizations responsible for advancing the social and economic interests of America's workers.

The California Budget Project (CBP) serves as a resource to the media, policymakers, and state and local constituency groups seeking accurate information and analysis of a range of state policy issues. Through independent fiscal and policy analysis, public education, and collaboration with other organizations, we work to improve public policies affecting the economic and social well-being of low- and middle-income Californians.

The Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution is a non-profit organization rooted in the belief that the American Revolution is a living tradition whose greatest promise is democracy. Our central purpose is to build on the accomplishments of earlier American movements by launching a new stage in the struggle for democracy.

The UC Institute for Labor and Employment (ILE) was a multi-campus research program devoted to studying, and finding solutions for, problems of labor and employment in California and the nation. It expanded upon the existing Institutes of Industrial Relations (IIRs) at UC Berkeley and UCLA, which were founded in 1945, and upon the two Centers for Labor Research and Education (CLREs) housed in the IIRs on those two campuses. During 2000-2003 the ILE supported a wide range of research, teaching, and community service activities.