Last Friday, members of the Service Employees International Union and their supporters gathered to protest a speech by David Rubenstein, co-founder of the private equity firm, the Carlyle Group.
Rubenstein was a keynote speaker at Wharton's 14th annual private equity and venture capital conference. The approximately 50 protestors disrupted his speech for approximately half an hour, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
According to Dennis Short, research coordinator for SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, the group turned out to oppose the short staffing and lack of supplies in Manor Care, a nursing care provider that the Carlyle Group acquired three weeks ago.
Short added that the union began protesting conditions with Manor Care's former owner and they insisted that Carlyle Group address the ongoing problems as part of the acquisition. He alleges that Manor Care has still not done so.
But the conference Communications Director and first-year MBA student Jordan Elpern-Waxman insists that the company cannot be held responsible for these conditions such a short time after the business deal.
Still, Elpern-Waxman insisted that the disruption did not spoil the conference.
"We clearly weren't happy with their presence but I think we reacted pretty calmly and avoided any physical confrontation and called the appropriate authorities to take care of the issue," he said.
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