America’s largest labor federation is calling on the global private equity firm Apollo Global Management to investigate worker surveillance, wrongful terminations, and intimidation of immigrant workers at its subsidiaries.
The union is also sounding the alarm over Apollo CEO Mark Rowan’s connections to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, as well as to President Donald Trump’s push to condition university funding on adoption of conservative policies, including strict gender definitions.
In a March 11 letter, the fifteen-million-member American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) detailed a “growing list of unaddressed workers’ rights violations” that allegedly occurred at three Apollo-owned companies.
The AFL-CIO is urging Apollo’s board to “take action when red flags indicate potential wrongdoing” and to review its subsidiaries’ compliance with the company’s stated “Responsible Workforce Principles.” These principles state that companies will support discrimination-free workplaces, respect unionizing rights, and uphold other worker protections.
In a written response to the union dated March 18, Apollo noted, “Neither Apollo nor any of its portfolio companies have ever interfered with an existing collective bargaining agreement.”
The company response, which was shared with the Lever, also noted, “Your letter cherry picks three isolated examples (two of which were not even originally equity investments) and ignores hundreds of other portfolio companies over the years, many of which have had productive and successful union engagement.”
Through the various companies they own, private equity firms like Apollo employ roughly 10 percent of the private sector workforce, and many of these jobs are in high-risk, low-wage industries. Companies acquired by private equity firms have gone on to be associated with workforce neglect and anti-union tactics.
Among its list of concerns, the AFL-CIO highlighted…
Auteur: Freddy Brewster
