Warren Buffett Refuses Bernie Sanders Request to Intervene in Labor Dispute

(Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett is not going to get involved in labor disputes of any company he owns, despite a request from Senator Bernie Sanders.

The Vermont independent asked Buffett to support a group in a labor strike within Precision Castparts Corp., a company Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. purchased in 2016 that makes equipment for aerospace and energy industries.

“I am personally requesting that you intervene in the negotiations between Steelworkers Local 40 and Precision Castparts to make sure that the workers are treated with dignity and respect and receive a fair contract that rewards the hard work and sacrifices they have made,” Sanders wrote to Buffett in a letter dated Dec. 28.

Buffett responded saying Berkshire’s companies deal with their labor and personnel decisions individually, enclosing a copy of the company’s 10-K explaining its operating businesses are managed on an “unusually decentralized basis.”

“I’m passing along your letter to the CEO of Precision Castparts but making no recommendation to him as to any action. He is responsible for his business,” Buffett, who is worth about $109 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, wrote back to Sanders.