No one wants to give up their raises, or go on furloughs, or be laid off. We all get that. But these days we are all faced with the same hardship. Many of us have been put in the position of taking a financial hit in order to save the jobs of our colleagues. And many others have not had that option — they have lost their jobs..
I can't take this as flat out confirmation, but highlighted line certainly seems consistent with the reports that all employees of Community Newspaper Holdings are being required to take off five unpaid days by the end of June.
To its credit, the Richmond Register, a CNHI paper, opted to publish an article on the furloughs. It's curious that papers like the Daily News don't do the same (again I'm assuming the News got the memo, because the Richmond paper says all CNHI papers, and the DN is one.)
Sure, these are private insitutions in business structure, but I'm sure the Daily News would report on furloughs occurring in any private business. And I certainly would argue that the Daily News is as public an entity as any in the city. It's delivered to 13,000 doorsteps a day. How many other businesses impact 13,000 people per day? There's a community connection.
I first read about the furloughs on "The Turner Report" blog a week or so back. I've intended to blog on the subject but haven't had the time. If you're interested, the blogger has the entire memo issued by CEO Donna Barrett. Here's a tidbit.
A reduced work schedule will be implemented for hourly employees during the second quarter. Employees will take off five days without pay between April 1, 2009 and June 30, 2009. It is expected that no work will be done during this time. This applies to full and part-time employees. Part-time employees’ work schedules will be reduced on a prorated basis. These days off must be taken during the second quarter, and must be taken before any regular vacation or personal days. Regular vacation, personal and sick days may not be substituted for these unpaid days off.
You can read about it here and here a well.
As an aside, Barrett has been one of the leaders of the so-far feeble "Newspapers: We're not dead yet!" campaign. I sincerely hope the effort reinvigorates the industry, but I think the newspapers should spend less time with the rah-rahs and more time with innovation. I'll save details for a later post if anyone cares.
Back in The Day, the Daily News reporters actually belonged to the Communication Workers of America union. Far as I can tell, the union got swept aside with the Tribune took over and hasn't found its way back. Just to be clear, we had a fairly feeble union, and I can say that since I was one of the officers and chief negotiators, but we were still represented. I can't say for sure this wouldn't have happened if CWA were still in place, but CNHI would have had to ask, just as Triton is doing.
2 comments:
If the Daily News went on a furlough, how could we tell?
I work at a CNHI paper; nobody is allowed overtime. Hourly workers put in 37.5 hrs/week. Salaried workers, on the other hand, put in 60-70 hours/week, trying to do the work that the furloughed/vacationing/time-limited hourly workers can't do.
Meanwhile, the hourly workers, because they are simply not paid for the five furlough days, can file for unemployment and recoup about 70 percent of their pay for that week (if they take all five off in a row, which of course they do). Salaried workers can not file for unemployment because we're taking a wage cut for the entire quarter, not five unpaid days.
And before I start sounding like some highly paid whiny salaried worker, I should say that at least two hourly workers on my staff make more than I do. I make about $32,000 a year. (The agreement that I signed when I took the job was for $40,000/year.)
When (not "if") they announce the next round of furloughs we're going to try for a compromise for the salaried workers - restore our wages and just don't pay us for the five days we don't work. If they won't do that, we're going to tell them we can only work 40/hours in a week because we have to find part-time jobs to pay the bills.
What do you all think will happen?
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