Pushing for a higher minimum wage, looking for ways to protect workers from the pain of globalization: that's the stuff of American organized labor today. And with Democrats controlling congress, some say the labor movement is going to get what it wants. The AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor group with 10 million members, on Tuesday made a bold move. It asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to stop the $40 billion Blackstone IPO.
The Financial Times reports that the request will stir political heat on private equity firms and threaten efforts by other buy-out groups to go public. In a letter, seen by Financial Times reporters, the union argues that Blackstone's executives are trying to evade the coverage of the Investment Company Act of 1940. The article explains that the labor attack points up new concern among union leaders and elected officials over the wealth of executives who run private equity funds in a time of increased wage inequality. They argue that private equity firms apply their generous tax status to wildly enrich an elite few while taking away jobs from millions of American workers.
With both houses of the U.S. Congress now in Democratic control, the battle of labor unions vs. business interests was bound to take center stage. And here we are -- business interests are raising millions of greenbacks to try and 
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