A high-profile business watchdog group has been mounting a monthslong pressure campaign pushing for unionization at two companies that provide American Sign Language translation services. Disclosures filed with the Department of Labor reveal that this campaign only began after the labor organization poised to gain members from the unionization effort started cutting monthly five-figure checks to the watchdog group in question.
Between March 2024 and February 2025, the Office and Professional Employees International Union paid out $144,000 to the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, also known as Financial Services Stakeholder Action, public records show. After the initial payment landed, PESP began writing blog posts, publishing reports, and hosting events targeting Sorenson Communications and ZP Better Together, both of which are owned by private equity firms, arguing that their workers should unionize through OPEIU.
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Nowhere in the materials published by PESP, however, does the organization disclose that it was paid well over six figures for an “organizing program” by the OPEIU, opening the door to ethics concerns.
In August 2024, for instance, PESP published a report outlining a host of purported issues in the ASL translation industry — among them physical strain, burnout, high turnover, and job dissatisfaction — and concluded that employees at Sorenson and ZP could improve their conditions by unionizing with the OPEIU. Nowhere in the report did PESP disclose that it was actively being paid by the union it was promoting. OPEIU later shared the PESP report via press release.
Other times PESP promoted the OPEIU’s unionization effort without a financial disclosure included a June 2024 blog post calling on Sorenson and ZP to allow their employees to unionize, a blog post from December of that year making similar demands, a June 2025 report where it suggested that the physical and mental strain faced by interpreters could be remedied by unionization, and a joint webinar in October 2024 where representatives of the two organizations advocated unionization.
Despite the fact that Sorenson and ZP have been owned by private equity for years, a review of PESP’s website shows that it never mentioned either company until it started receiving payments from the OPEIU.
“It’s clear that PESP’s criticisms aren’t motivated by legitimate policy concerns,” Pinpoint Policy Institute executive director Eric Ventimiglia told the Washington Examiner. “This episode raises serious questions about their credibility and advocacy.”
Ventimiglia was previously a senior aide to former Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), and his organization advocates economic deregulation and other free-market policies.
PESP’s advocacy campaign has been reasonably successful in attracting the support of liberal policymakers.
UNION BOSSES ACROSS THE NATION CUT LARGE PAYCHECKS TO FAMILY
Democratic California State Treasurer Fiona Ma, for example, joined PESP and OPEIU for a webinar on unionization in the ASL in October 2024. Emails obtained via public records requests show PESP touted its August 2024 report in meeting solicitations to policymakers in California and Texas.
Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) has also appeared alongside union organizers at a press conference held in March.
In addition to taking funding from labor unions, PESP relies on left-of-center philanthropies like the Soros family’s Open Society Foundations, the Omidyar Network Fund, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Democratic-aligned dark money network linked to Arabella Advisors.
PESP and OPEIU did not respond to requests for comment.