Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Fresno Guild approves management plan calling for 21 Guild layoffs, wage cuts

The Fresno Bee Newspaper Guild has voted to approve a management plan calling for layoffs and wage cuts.
Union members at The Fresno Bee say they'll take pay cuts of up to 6 percent in exchange for fewer layoffs at the San Joaquin Valley paper.

A union leader says workers' approval of the deal Tuesday will save five union-covered, fulltime jobs in the newsroom. Still, Bee managers plan to eliminate 16 full-time and five part-time jobs of the 89 Guild-covered positions in the newswroom.

The cuts are part of a move by its owner, McClatchy Co., to eliminate 15 percent of its work force. Workers at The Sacramento Bee and The Modesto Bee already have agreed to concessions in recent days.

Under The Fresno Bee's proposal, employees earning between $60,000 and $89,999 a year will have their pay cut 6 percent. Employees making $35,000 or less won't face a salary reduction.

Publisher Will Fleet said he couldn't comment.

The pay cuts will be effective April 13, 2009.

To see info on layoffs at other McClatchy newspapers, click here.

.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for Fresno not cutting wages to workers making less than $35K. Absolutely ridiculous to cut wages of those making any less. The rest are cutting $25K and above.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many non-guild employees will get cut on top of that?

Anonymous said...

Me too and the guild employees are playing right into McClatchy's hand by only reporting the guild's lost jobs and not reporting the totals that they are throwing out. Let's not even bother to mention the number of non guild employees that are being cut to make up for what the guild is keeping. They are not saving a single job. Just shifting where they come from. The SCAB Bastards.

If you go by the totals that have been announced it appears that only 544 layoffs have been announced. Where are the rest coming from?

Anonymous said...

Has anyone else heard that the rest of the layoffs are coming tomorrow at the Modesto Bee?

Anonymous said...

I'm so worried, I survived 2 rounds so far of cuts, I hope I make it again, we will kinow in the morning.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps this means that the Fresno staff will no longer have to suffer through Life section centerpieces on Snuggies (from NYT) and the hard-hitting front-page watchdog report "Valley can't do without Girl Scout cookies as sales rise even during recession" -- both from today's fun-filled edition.

I feel bad for the journalists in Fresno -- the ones leaving, as well as those staying. The Bee can be so much more than its editors are letting it be.

Word verification: "creeik," as in "Creeik, get me another 60 inches of wire filler!"

Anonymous said...

Good for Fresno not cutting wages to workers making less than $35K. Absolutely ridiculous to cut wages of those making any less. The rest are cutting $25K and above.

***

I disagree. I don't WANT to see anyone have their pay cut, but I can't in good conscience justify giving some people a pass and punishing people who have served the company well enough and for enough years to have earned what they are paid.

Stagger it if you must, but let everyone SHARE in the pain to lesson it across the board.

Anonymous said...

Seven managers will be laid off tomorrow at 10 am. Buyouts will be offered to the guild covered people and the brain trust will decide whose they'll take and those and any others they need to get rid of will be cut by next week. Along with the five part-timers who have known they're screwed all along.

Anonymous said...

D-Day Tomorrow at The Modesto Bee for non guild employees. Stand by your phones and hope you don't hear that HR ring. I think I may of ran out of life lines. I used my last one and phoned a friend. and it does not look good. Thats my final answer IT DOES NOT LOOK GOOD.

lenny said...

I am a bee carrier. It is no better. The bee just raised the cost of supplies and raised the subscription price and also raised the complaint price cost to carriers. The execs do not suffer especially the ceo of the company. He needs to be the one who gets the ax. His leadership has not made things any better. I would be funny to see him throwing papers at three o clock in the morning 365 days a year.