CHICAGO, June 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Singing, praying and chanting, dozens of religious leaders, labor and environmental activists pressed Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, ServiceMaster's (NYSE:SVM) new owners, to take steps immediately to safeguard the nations' children and pets by directing ServiceMaster to curb its pesticide use and "Be Truly Green." The event was the first of several planned by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and coalition partners over the summer to raise the question, "Will their enormous profits be used to protect the environment, help make college more affordable for students, provide health care for workers, or will the profits go to make a handful of executives incredibly wealthy?" Last year, the buyout industry made $45 billion in profit. The CD&R $5.5 billion buyout of ServiceMaster will generate more than $90 million in fees for CD&R, the banks funding the deal, and other insiders alone. At the shareholders meeting, environmentalist, labor and religious leaders addressed investors voting on the buyout and made a public call for CD&R to use some of the great wealth generated to adopt a business model that no longer relies on the continued use of potentially dangerous and toxic lawn care chemicals. ServiceMaster has positioned itself as a steward of the environment, based in part on the religious underpinnings of the organization. Activists who spoke at the meeting pressed CD&R and ServiceMaster to guarantee that ServiceMaster will be transparent about its policies that impact the environment and workers.
"The Bible we read calls us to remember the covenant in the name of God. We are calling and reminding ServiceMaster to fulfill and uphold a covenant that calls for the reduction in the use of pesticides and for the protection of the men and women who apply and handle their pesticides," said the Rev. Teran Loeppke, commissioned deacon at Edward United Methodist Church.
"Our message to CD&R is simple. They have said they want to both grow and maintain stewardship of ServiceMaster's core principles. We are hoping that they can accomplish what the ServiceMaster board could not, to live up in deed to the content of their words," said Paul Schramski of Pesticide Watch.
Background: The private equity buyout industry, armed with more than a half-trillion dollars of capital, is today engineering financial deals that together are larger than the annual budgets of most of the world's countries. This financial juggernaut is generating hefty returns to its investors, extraordinary riches for its executives, and newly relevant questions about the impact of its business practices on American workers, businesses, communities, and the nation.
Last week, SEIU released a set of principles designed to address the concerns of investors, the public, and workers including: -- The buyout industry should play by the same set of rules as everyone
else, including providing transparency and disclosure about their
businesses, and eliminating conflicts of interest and other potential
abuses in their transactions;
-- The public, including workers directly affected by the deal and
consumer organizations, should have a voice in the deals and benefit
from their outcome; and
-- Community stakeholders should have a voice in the deals and benefit
from their outcome.
SEIU members participate in pension funds with more than $1 trillion in assets, most of which invest 5 percent to 10 percent of their assets in private equity. SEIU is a longtime advocate of responsible corporate governance practices and an active member of the Council of Institutional Investors, an organization of more than 130 pension funds whose assets exceed $3 trillion.
For more information go to http://www.behindthebuyouts.org/. DATASOURCE: Service Employees International Union CONTACT: Paul Schramski of Pesticide Watch, +1-916-216-1082 (mobile) Web site: http://www.seiu.org/ http://www.behindthebuyouts.org/
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