McClatchy newspapers will extend a wage freeze instituted last year, ensuring employees’ earning power remains stagnant at best for two years.
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“We plan to extend the current wage freeze for all employees (including corporate) at least through December of this year, with the hope of restoring merit increases sometime in 2010, as business conditions warrant,” Publisher Orage Quarles III of The News & Observer tells his employees in an e-mail sent today. “As we finalize budget plans this fall, each McClatchy newspaper will determine when the freeze will end.”
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“We remain committed to lifting the salary freeze as soon as financial conditions allow,” he adds, after opening the note by saying that despite more than doubling its profits in the second quarter, the company “continue(s) to experience a challenging revenue environment and must remain disciplined in our cost control efforts.”
Looks like each McClatchy property will determine when the wage freeze ends for their employees.
I assume other papers are being told about the wage freeze extension today. No press release from the corporate office yet.
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18 comments:
Way to go, McClatchy! More hypocritical b.s. from the boardroom all the way down to the publishers -and by that I mean: if there is, in fact, a Wage Freeze, how you can have LOWERED people's salaries? How can you force them to burn down their vacation time AND take unpaid furloughs? If the salaries can't be raised, then they surely can't be lowered! Oh, wait,that's right, it's McClatchy - constantly wading in a cesspool of hypocritical excrement so deep it's hard to see over the top. Wow.
Good Point 1:15...Part of the reason they were able to double their profits for Q2 was by violating their own wage freeze and forcing salary cuts on all the employees while increasing their work load.
Seems to me the employees who use up their vacation first will be the prime candidates for early layoffs. Those will be the ones that will help them show a profit. They will not be worth laying off until they no longer have vacation pay owed to them. That vacation pay adds up when they do heavy rounds of layoffs.
Everyone should try to take their vacation time as late in the year as possible so they won't be let go until the very end of the year, thus making an impact on Q3 & 4. If everyone does this, McClatchy's numbers wont look rosy until the first quarter earnings report of next year AFTER they let go of everyone end of Dec & Jan. It doesn't take a genus to figure the strategy out.
Yeah but all of our sales reps are at plan.
Take it from me they DO NOT look at vacation balances when planning which positions to reduce. That is the most ridiculous thing I have seen on this blog in awhile. And that means it tops a lot of ridiculousness!
But wait -- if they DID do staff cuts by vacation balance, you all could quit bitchin' about LIFO.
Calling it a "wage freeze" when you reduce salaries sounds a lot like the government saying they've reduced the deficit by lowering the deficit's annual rate of increase. The deficit still goes up, and wages weren't frozen at all. They're melting.
I'm with you 1:15 and 2:06
This company sucks. Glad to see management can get their bonus for Q2 at the expense of all the REAL workers they let go.
How many managers did you see get the axe? Those are the morons that need to go away but still are in "charge", if that is what you can call it.
TOTAL AGGREEMENT WITH 1:15, 2:06 and 4:01 ABOUT "THE MORONS IN CHARGE"!!!!!
The question is who is the bigger moron, the one in charge or the ones following them?
2:30 You're an idiot. They may not look at vacation accrued now when they are deciding who they will lay off, BUT THEY WILL. What do you think the whole point of the vacation burn down is??? Easier to clean house and get people off the payroll without having to write out big chks to them. there are hundreds of employees at McClatchy that have 2, 3 and 4 weeks vacation accrued. If they had to pay them severance plus vacation that would be a substantial amount whether your pea brain thinks so or not. Much easier to pay them some small severance amount based on their new lower wage and send them on their way. No vacation, no insurance and clear each one off the books. That will play a big PART in their trying to show a profit again.
Two years? We haven't had a raise in three years......
Sent on behalf of Gary Wortel
All Employees,
As you know from McClatchy’s recent earnings report, the company is making progress in weathering this difficult economy. Still, we continue to experience a challenging revenue environment and must remain disciplined in our cost control efforts.
With that in mind, we plan to extend the current wage freeze for all employees (including corporate) at least through December of this year, with the hope of restoring merit increases sometime in 2010, as business conditions warrant. As we finalize budget plans this fall, each McClatchy newspaper will determine when the freeze will end.
We know this hardship along with our recent announcement of furloughs, weighs heavily on everyone. We are determined to successfully manage through a recession that has few precedents and remain committed to lifting the salary freeze as soon as financial conditions allow.
Meanwhile, thank you for the contributions you’ve made toward helping us achieve our goals. We’re all in this together, and your hard work has helped the company position itself for better days ahead.
Please contact your manager if you have questions.
Gary Wortel
President & Publisher
Star-Telegram
Observations:
McCrappy papers all using the same B.S. "We're all in this together" memo, indicating that Sacramento is still calling the shots on the "freeze" and if it will be lifted, not the indiviual papers.
It is not extending a wage freeze; it is extending pay cuts and cutting pay further via furloughs.
Also word has it that Star-Telegram managers still got bonuses at the end of 2008 after the so-called freeze, But "we're all in this together."
Watch out for McCrappy's next chance to screw you: "benefits" renewal before year's end.
Finally, does anyone know if the Star-Telegram publisher actually knows how to use a computer? He has his secretary send out this Sacramento-generated memo and other Wortelograms announcing cuts.
Hey hatchet man, they have this new thing called cut and paste where you can send out your Wortelograms on your computer while having others write them beforehand.
No wage increase for the last two years, all the added work from those that left, zero respect from management AND we get nothing added to our meager pensions. And they wonder why moral is in the toilet.
Pruitt and the rest of corporate clowns, bozo publishers and dimwitted MEs don't give a fig about morale. All they care about is, first, their own pay and perks; and second, the next quarterly statement and how long they will be able to ride their gravy train. They would love to see longtime employees leave because they are higher up on the meager pay scale. Our only hope is that this shortsighted management is forced to declare bankruptcy and a reorganization throws the bums out. Their strategy is maximize profit and cost-cutting at the expense of employees and the long-term health of the company they profess to want to save. Gordon Gecko Pruitt has no shame or management sense.
Two years of frozen wages does indeed suck...because the company didn't pay well to start with. They used to admit that, and justify it by their "great benefits package", which, while not that great, is now a shadow of its former self. Good times.
I try to be optomistic but I just looked at my paycheck today and I can't begin to pay my bills. I'm doing double the work and reduced pay. Furlough days, don't help either. I think corporate needs to take a good look at employee wages, including management. That straight across the board 2,3 percent reduction in pay makes no sense. Those that are making below poverty level should be looked at as people not numbers. At this rate we won't be able to stay and work for McClatchy, we won't be able to afford it.
5:24AM- My advice is to look for another job. Especially if you can't pay your bills.
By the way, paycuts were not accross the board. Those making more took a higher percentage cut. Highly paid took a 10% hit.
Forgive me for being ignorant but could you elaborate on just who took a 10% pay cut. I think many would be interested. Oh, and when you say "making more" what does that mean specifically?
From memory only: Pruitt took a 15% cut and anyone making over $100k took a 10% cut. I believe they filed something with the SEC and the newspapers spelled out the details of salary reductions via memos earlier this year. I am sure people on this blog can help verify.
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