Sunday, May 31, 2009

Reader: Modesto Bee gives 30 day notice to hundreds of carriers

A reader sent this to me by email:
On May 29th all Modesto Bee carriers (Independent Contractors) were given a "Notice of Termination of Contract", basically it states that the Agreement will be terminated as per Paragraph 24. My contract terminates as of 12:01 AM on 06/29/09. None of us have been told what to expect. We were informed a week ago and had to sign an amendment to our contract that we will be moved to Ceres to pick up our home delivery papers as of June 24th. We have no idea if that will be for only the four days from the 24th to the 29th since no one management or other will tell us anything.

The reader thinks this will affect up to 300 carriers.

Hard to make sense of this... if you have info, leave it in comments.
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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Modesto Bee has opted to subcontract their newspaper and then they in turn will have independent carriers to deliver them at a lower cost then what they were contracted for with the Modesto Bee. Seems odd that there has been nothing in the paper about this.

Anonymous said...

My understanding is this is happening at other Mcclatchy papers as well. In the past, it seems like it would have been a big topic here,but nowadays this site is more about bizarre "rightwing" finger pointing that only the 8 people who post here now care about.

I really would like to see some discussion of this event on here.

Are there still any Mcclatchy Watch readers out there with any information?

Anonymous said...

I worked for McClatchy for 22 years.The contractors are always the ones who get screwed.

Anonymous said...

The Modesto Bee carriers are being exploited. None of them want to be working under terrible conditions seven days a week... they have to. The Distributors know this and are trying to scare carriers into accepting a penny or two less so they can keep it. The only way for them to do so legally is to "fire" them all and re-contract them.

The carrier work force are the real back bone of the newspaper and they are the ones treated with the least respect.

Anonymous said...

It's probably happening because of the carrier lawsuits.

Anonymous said...

this is the beginning of the outsourcing of the circulation depts at McClatchy.Attn all Circulation employees...start looking for another career. I figure anybody above Home Delivery Manager is safe for now

Anonymous said...

word is nc and sc is next for the circ outsourcing

Anonymous said...

With regards to the legal battles starting to emerge, is it any wonder? Independent contractors (carriers) have had to be a little loony to work a route for any length of time, they catch flack from both ends .. With little or ‘no control’ over either, plus they do it 7 days a week including Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, (365 days with no days off) and at times in horrible weather conditions. Yes, there is a contract and signed contracts are all well and good if they benefits both parties and everyone plays by the rules. Past experience is if a change happens there is no negotiations as the contract states .... usually the ‘amendment’ or ‘a new contract’ is handed out and carriers have had no time to even look it over but required to sign immediately if they want to keep their route.

I understand the Santa Ana lawyer handling the latest legal battle is seeking a “Class Action” suit. He filed the suit in Sacramento Superior Court early February charging that the carriers are employees of the company and that The Bee is engaging in unfair business practices. There are 12 named plaintiffs but the lawsuit is looking to represent “all persons presently or formerly engaged as newspaper home delivery carriers” for the paper.

Like I said, “Is it any wonder?”

Anonymous said...

that is why i throw papers for the stockton record. they have all the papers=job security and they pay fairly.

Anonymous said...

Seems odd that there has been nothing in the paper about this.

June 1, 2009 6:17 AM


Yeah...Right!!! McClatchy Damage control...There are still people out there that don't know the Modesto paper is being printed in Sac and 180 people were laid off back in Sept. and the cuts continue...MNI business as usual!!!

Anonymous said...

It is always amazing how we play the victim card...as an independent contractor EVERYTHING is negotiated....
The beauty of being a contractor is that you can sub out your route to take time off...you are the business owner...you can make those decisions.
If you have questions ASK until you get a good answer and if you don't like answer move on. There are many other companies who use contracted service to distribute product.
Don't act defeated take control and be the independent contracted business owner that you are.
Last the lawsuit?! Who is really profiting here the lawyer or the contractors? Investigate!!! Don't be a victim again!