After the Chrysler buyout was announced, The Daily Deal's Lou Whiteman
reported
that Cerberus Capital Management LP was facing a potentially difficult round
of labor negotiations. But the prospect of a private equity firm — unbeholden
to the public and thus free to behave ruthlessly — taking on the hated UAW has
prompted swaggering pronouncements from advocates of such unfettered
application of capitalist power. First up was Larry Ribstein, who got all
tingly contemplating how Cerberus would deliver the richly deserved smackdown:
It's just a table for two, with capital and labor sitting across
from each other, no referees, and a pie in the middle. If they can't agree on
how to share it, capital picks up its marbles (not to mix metaphors) and walks
away. The unions know that just beyond the dog lie the gates of
hell.
As it happens, Stephen Bainbridge recently penned a
critique
of Delaware Judge Leo Strine's call for labor and management to seek common
ground, and he now
cites
Ribstein for support. In short, Bainbridge sees "very little in the way of
such common interests and even less corporate law can do about them."
Maybe Cerberus will agree to prosecute the winner-take-all confrontation these
commentators seem to relish. One suspects, however, that the firm will
recognize the contradiction inherent in Bainbridge's call for "good,
old-fashioned take it or leave it bargaining."
—Jeffrey Kanige
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