Posted on 08/17/2007 9:59:11 AM PDT by abb
Topic: Miscellaneous items Date/Time: 8/17/2007 11:15:25 AM Title: More cuts at Star Tribune Posted By: Jim Romenesko
Star Tribune newsroom union's report to members
THE CUTS CONTINUE: Reports from other unions at the Strib
You see them often -- eight savvy techs who help solve computer and other technical problems in the newsroom and elsewhere. Those eight IT workers are members of our CWA local (but not our Star Tribune Guild unit). (Erik Crane may be the IT we see most often in the newsroom.)
Our union learned this week that the publisher is eliminating five of the techs' jobs. They have until noon Aug. 24 to apply for buyouts similar to those taken recently by newsroom departees. Both those applying and those who may face layoffs if there aren't enough volunteers will learn their jobs' fate that very afternoon, and those departing will leave by early September.
Two of their jobs are protected under their contract, and the company apparently will hang onto a third position.
Having been through the cutback mill, we feel for them. And we're also wondering: Who will we call when tech problems pop up, as they surely will? The answer is unclear.
THEN THERE ARE THE JANITORS...
More cutbacks are also coming in Building Services, we have learned. The company is shooting for 10 buyouts from among the group of Strib maintenance workers represented by the SEIU union. Our friends the janitors tell us that if the company doesn't get that many buyouts, it is considering forcing people to go part-time, which could mean loss of their benefits.
We feel for them. And again, we wonder -- who will do the work if people and hours are cut? We're checking into reports that some of our fellow Strib unions have been told they'll be doing their own cleaning after the maintenance cutbacks, and are protesting with grievances.
Which leads us to ask, rhetorically at least: What next?
Your unit officers
ping
ping
What the heck? How can they cut IT people? They don’t produce any news content but they keep the place running. Either they were way overstaffed or they are going to be waiting a long time to have their computers fixed and updated.
IT simply does more with less, more or less, less is more. LOL.
The Star Tribune, known affectionately as the Red Star of the West in Minnestoa, has only itself to blame. It has performed phony polls and reported them as “news”, it is beholding to the Democratic party in Minnesota and reports accordingly, and its editorial writes continually demonstrate their total disconnect with the readers.
Good riddance. Too bad about the jobs but they did it to themselves and those Union workers COULD have and SHOULD have spoken out about how biased news “reporting” was going to be the death of the paper.
High Wages for low skills!!!
Free lunch!!!
Artificially raise the price (of labor) and supply will not contract!!
The invisible hand is a myth!!!
They’ll be missed (snort).
another GREAT Friday news bump!
Not only is the nwespaper a communist rag, but the readers who still actually buy this paper are too! a swift perusal of the letters to the editor reveal that only about once per week does an actual letter appear that is not ripping the GOP, Bush, or the Iraq War.
They have one common sense columnnist, Katherine Kerstien, and she is always criticized roundly by the readers. The other OpEd writers are so far left, they fall into the Pacific Ocean.
The “Strib” ought to be used in marketing classes as a perfect example of group think. The only other use is to line bird cages.
You can help bring this glorious day closer. Never under any circumstances subscribe to the paper, buy it on the news stand, or respond to any advertising you may see while reading it in a waiting room. If you must read something on-line, try to limit your clicks, and make a point to avoid big daily web pages whenever possible. Help Nick Coleman find his way to the unemployment line.
been told they'll be doing their own cleaning
They will be told that they have to do their own maintenance.
In management school, all their case studies are based on making "widgets". People who make "widgets" are interchangeable, don't you know.
while I feel badly for any person losing a job, I have nothing but smiles for the continuing death spiral of the strib.
if we are lucky, in a couple of years, they can convert the office space to low cost housing, or better yet, tear it down.
a fitting end for a trash newspaper
It’s amazing that these lefty papers can’t survive in lefty land. The same thing is happening to the LA Times. I thought liberals loved the newspapers, but then maybe they are really hypocrites and cheapskates after all. :)
We can't wait to feed on those soaked in alcohol pink meat Triberal Mediots.
I was a journalism major in college and loved reading the newspaper. Sad day to see the practice of reporting the news sink so low.
FR is now my morning coffee accompaniment.
Now if we could only recreate the sound effect of crinkling pages as we turned them, I loved that sound. LOL
Close. It's on land the Vikings want for their new stadium. Which would be very high cost housing indeed.
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