BREAKING: Business Editors Locked in Ballroom

David Rubenstein, co-founder of the secretive private equity firm Carlyle Group, was met by a band of protesters as he prepared to speak at a conference of Society of American Business Editors and Writers in Baltimore Monday.

The protesters were angry about Rubenstein's pay and voiced complaints about the quality of the nursing homes that Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle owns. Rubenstein remarked that the union showed up at SABEW to embarrass him, and that members often protest at locations where Carlyle executives are speaking. Indeed, in recent months, they've been at a speech Rubenstein gave at the University of Pennsylvania and at another of his appearances in midtown Manhattan.

But this group was a little different. In the audience full of business journalists there was New York Times editors Glenn Kramon, Larry Ingrassia, New York Times columnist Floyd Norris, and TheStreet.com editor Dave Morrow.

The protesters apparently were early. They stormed to the third floor ballroom, where 200 people were asking questions of a Fannie Mae exec.

No one panicked, despite being locked in the third floor ballroom of a Sheraton in Baltimore. Most people thought it humorous that someone would protest here. Says one eyewitness, “While we were locked in the ballroom, we had a live auction to raise money for SABEW. Auctioned two lunches, one with Paul Kruger and one with Paul Steiger. None of the 200 people in ballroom saw the protesters but we could hear them shouting their chant. But we could not understand what they were saying.”

The protesters appeared to be members of the Service Employees International Union or their allies. The union has been trying for some time to organize 60,000 workers at Manor Care, an Ohio-based operator of nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and assisted-living facilities that Carlyle bought in 2007.

As Carlyle was trying to close the deal, the SEIU tried to fight the takeover in 30 states, Rubenstein said. His firm bought Manor Care for more than $6 billion.

Rubenstein said SEIU members want him to contact the leadership of Manor Care and tell executives to meet the union's demands. Carlyle, he said, decided to let Manor Care's management deal with the situation after the acquisition closed

The doors are now unlocked, and the day is proceeding.