Our staff is, apparently, too large

The Tribune Corp. is doing its own take on the Marine recruiting mantra – it’s looking for a few fewer men, and women. Though most of us working here know that The Sun is so thinly staffed that it’s being held together with duct tape, apparently the declining stock price dictates that we get the paper out with an even smaller work force. This is yet another confirmation that in the view of Tribune, we do not serve the readers, we serve the shareholders. The stock price has been going down. It must be our fault. The latest confirmation of this came in a buyout offer, or as the corporate types call it, a “voluntary separation incentive.” Details of the company offer were presented to Guild representatives in a meeting Monday morning. Urgency was the order of the day. Tribune vice president Howard Weinstein said the plan has to be in place by Wednesday.

And, by the way, there is no negotiating, the company said. This was just a courtesy session. The reason, said Tribune types, was a side letter to the last contract about “incentive plans.” In fact, that letter had nothing to do with buyouts. It was about things like Solar incentive payments. But that doesn’t stop the Tribune labormeisters. Eager, it seems, to violate the spirit of the contract at every opportunity that serves their purposes, they will try to drive a bulldozer through any tiny opening. The Guild has another meeting set for Tuesday with the company. We will try to improve the offer. But the sword of Damocles dangling over our head is that if this plan doesn’t go through, then the Tribune says involuntary layoffs will result. In fact, company reps said that even if they make their buyout numbers, there could still be layoffs.

Here are the details:

The Guild was given a list of 63 people eligible for buyouts. They are from various departments across the company, each of which has its own criteria for eligibility, mainly years of service. The Guild does not think some of those divisions – such as separating features reporters from metro reporters – are legal under the contract. All those eligible are scheduled to get packets from the company this week.

Each group has a cap of guaranteed buyouts. If more than that apply, the selection of who gets to leave will be made by seniority. The total cap is 18, though the company says it will consider taking more, and will consider requests from those not on the eligibility list. (If you’re not on the list, but ask for a buyout, it would be up to management whether to grant it.)

The offer is basically the same as the severance provisions of the contract – one week of salary for every six months of service, a minimum of four weeks and a maximum of 52. If you sign up by June 18, the buyout can be paid out as a regular bi-weekly salary with all benefits continuing. If you sign up later than that, you can only get a lump sum with no benefits. The offer closes on June 25. You have three days to change your mind, All of this is in time for second quarter accounting, by the way.

This is without a doubt, better than layoffs. But it is also, without a doubt, not a very generous package. It is less than offered in previous buyouts. It is much less than the two years’ salary offered recently by the Washington “Let’s have a level playing field” Post. We will try to make it better. We will keep you posted.

-Mike Hill, unit chair