Private equity links to Michigan bankruptcies, layoffs, union-busting

In recent years, private equity ownership in Michigan has resulted in layoffs, bankruptcies, and union-busting throughout the state. Notably, many of these issues at private equity-owned companies have hit Michigan’s robust manufacturing industry, which employs 12% of Michiganders as of July 2026. 

Layoffs

To generate returns for investors, private equity firms aim to make a company more profitable by increasing efficiency (eliminating “unnecessary” positions), lowering costs (using cheaper products or labor), or reducing competition (consolidating the market through acquiring smaller companies). The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires companies with over 100 employees to provide advance notice of mass layoffs or plant closings that will result in more than 50 lost jobs. Many of these layoffs came as part of an acquisition or market consolidation – when combining two or more companies, there may be “redundancies” that get resolved through layoffs. 

Trystar

In April 2026, Blackstone-owned electrical equipment manufacturer Trystar announced that it would close down its facility in Troy, Michigan and lay off 71 workers. Trystar equipment is used across the energy and utilities sector, providing power distribution to data centers, military facilities, entertainment venues, and more. In a PESP analysis of 2026 WARN data, 34% of private equity-backed layoffs were in the manufacturing sector. Private equity firms are acquiring manufacturing companies, rapidly consolidating the industry. Under private equity ownership, Trystar has acquired ten companies since 2020 including Controlled Power Company, which operated the Michigan facility.

Trystar has been owned by private equity firms since 2018, when Goldner Hawn acquired the company. In 2024, Blackstone acquired Trystar through its Blackstone Energy Transition Partners IV. The State of Michigan Investment Board committed $100 million to this Blackstone fund in December 2022 – through this commitment, the pension system has a stake in the company now closing down plants and laying off workers in its own state. 

In August 2023, the company reported approximately 500 employees. Since then, Trystar has acquired five companies with more than 270 employees, bringing the company total to nearly 800. Closing the Troy facility will result in a nine percent workforce reduction for Trystar. In the WARN notice, the company declared that plant operations would be transferred to another site, but gave no further details.

Two weeks after submitting the WARN notice, Trystar announced that it was “expanding manufacturing capacity” through a new facility in Loveland, CO, consolidating operations from two Colorado locations into one. The Colorado facilities in Nunn and Greeley were previously owned and operated by Salient, which Trystar acquired in October 2024. According to the company press release, Trystar chose Loveland for “its strong manufacturing workforce and business-friendly environment.” It is unclear whether the consolidation will lead to any job losses, or whether work from the shuttered facility in Michigan will move to Colorado.

Autokiniton

In Detroit, private equity-owned automotive metals supplier Autokiniton announced 150 layoffs late last year. KPS Capital Partners created the company in 2018, acquiring L&W Inc and announcing plans to grow through more acquisitions. The following year, Autokiniton acquired Tower International. Autokiniton has 36 US facilities, including 23 in Michigan, and additional facilities in Mexico, Brazil, and India. 

Five months after workers at the Detroit plant ratified a new contract with increases to wages and benefits, the United Auto Workers (UAW) local received news that the plant would close. Many people had been with the company for more than 20 years. UAW Local 155 President said “employees were told that the closure is the result of a business decision after the company evaluated its portfolio of plants.”

Headquartered in New York, KPS “makes controlling equity investments in global manufacturing and industrial companies.” The firm’s portfolio companies operate in 25 countries, and are valued at $18.6 billion. KPS maintains a webpage titled “Maintaining Constructive Relationships with Unions,” but many KPS-owned companies are non-union. At least three KPS-owned companies without union representation have faced fines and other enforcement actions for health and safety violations in recent years. OSHA identified 15 violations at Trojan Battery Company during KPS ownership and seven violations at KPS’ OldCastleBuildingEnvelope (OBE) non-union locations. Five OSHA violations at KPS’ Briggs & Stratton led to more than $70,000 in fines.

Autokiniton is not the first mass layoff for a KPS company in recent years. In 2024, KPS bought Midwest Glass Fabricators, a Michigan-based competitor of its portfolio company OBE. A press release stated that “This acquisition further demonstrates OBE’s proven track record of successfully partnering with family-owned businesses and providing them with strategic capital and resources required to pursue future growth opportunities.” The same press release had a statement from a Midwest Glass Fabricators co-founder, echoing the same sentiment: “This partnership will provide growth opportunities for our employees and enhance our ability to continue serving our loyal customer base built over three decades.”

Less than a year and a half after the acquisition, KPS-owned OBE announced a sudden closure of Midwest Glass, laying off 124 workers in Highland Township and shocking the cofounder and local officials. KPS did not provide a public explanation for the Michigan closing and a July 2025 Detroit Free Press article noted that: “Among the unanswered questions is whether the private-equity-backed company had always intended to shut down one of its competitors and obtain the valuable equipment inside the Highland Township plant, or if that’s just how things happened to turn out.”

Bankruptcies

While many companies face challenges brought on by consumer changes, large private-equity-driven debt loads can often make such challenges insurmountable, leading to closures, layoffs, and bankruptcies where lenders and suppliers are forced to take losses. 

Pretium Packaging, a plastic packaging manufacturer, has a long history of private equity ownership and private-equity-driven acquisition sprees, dating back multiple decades. In 2020, Clearlake Capital acquired Pretium Packaging and continued a debt-fueled buying spree with three more acquisitions of smaller plastics manufacturers. The strategy of debt fueled acquisitions ran into problems in the post-COVID cool off when a sales bump faded and inflation set in. By 2022, lower sales and excess production capacity led the company to shutter five plants, plus another in 2025, laying off hundreds of workers. The 2022 closures included a plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan with 53 layoffs.

In late 2025, the firm received a ratings downgrade by Moody’s because of a missed interest payment on one of its loans. The credit ratings firm stated at the time that “the outlook is negative” for Pretium Packaging. The firm filed for bankruptcy in early 2026, using the process to cancel a debt load of $900 million.

Eddie Bauer, the outdoor apparel retail company, filed for bankruptcy in February with $1.7 billion in debt and closed its headquarters and 174 stores. Eddie Bauer has been through a series of private equity buyouts and two previous bankruptcies over the past 15 years. The most recent leveraged buyout was in 2021 under Authentic Brands Group, which is backed by private equity firms CVC Capital, Leonard Green & Partners, and BlackRock. The company closed nine locations in Michigan. 

Union-Busting

As more workers petition to form unions, employers are turning to union avoidance firms and anti-union persuaders. Union busting firms use tactics like creating anti-union literature and holding captive audience meetings where workers are discouraged from voting for the union.

United Road Servicesprovides vehicle and heavy-haul transportation services across the US. Acquired by The Carlyle Group in 2017, the company hired union-busting consultants to dissuade workers at the company’s Plymouth, MI location from joining the Teamsters in 2024. United Road hired Peak Employee & Labor Relations for “$212.50 per hour, plus reasonable travel expenses.”

Orchid Orthopedic Solutions is a medical device manufacturer headquartered in Michigan. The company has been owned by private equity firms since 2000, changing hands four times. Most recently, Charlesbank Capital Partners acquired Orchid from Nordic Capital through existing portfolio company Tecomet. 

Under Nordic’s leadership, the company launched a union-busting campaign at one of its Oregon locations. Orchid hired consultants from National Labor Relations Advocates, well-known for discouraging workers from organizing to form a union. The consultants charge thousands of dollars per day for on-site work, which could include things like captive audience meetings (legal at the time) or training management on anti-union rhetoric. Orchid spent more than $165,000 in just three months to stop workers from forming a union.