As more and more companies are being bought out by private equity funds, unions are being forced to turn to business experts to maintain bargaining power in the face of the funds' goal of quickly restructuring and selling the firms they purchase. With wages and benefits often topping the list of companies' costs, unions often find themselves in tough fights to make sure jobs survive the changes in ownership.
See "New Labor Strikes Deals With 'Private Equity Guys'", Dale Russakoff and David Cho, The Washington Post, June 10, 2007