SEARCH
Tribune Bankruptcy Targets Workers |
|
Workers will take a big brunt of the fallout from the bankruptcy of the Tribune Co., with the company seeking to cut costs on the backs of workers. At court hearings Wednesday, the media conglomerate asked permission to cut employee severance payments and health care benefits.
The Chicago-based Tribune filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, claiming it is $13 billion in debt, and experts say this is just the first of what could be many more filings by newspaper companies, many of which are saddled with huge debts and declining revenues. The chain includes such well-known newspapers as the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel and the Hartford Courant, 23 TV stations and the Chicago Cubs baseball team. The Cubs are not part of the bankruptcy.
The notoriously anti-union Tribune Co. has few union employees. The Newspaper Guild (TNG) represents some 290 news and advertising employees out of 1,300 workers at the Baltimore Sun. The paper also employs about 377 drivers, press operators and mailers, who are represented by affiliates of the Teamsters. TNG of New York Local 31003 also represents a small unit of employees at WPIX TV station in New York.
Cet Parks, executive director of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Local 32035, which represents the Sun editorial employees, says the paper has been damaged by the “mismanagement” of Tribune management over the past eight years. Parks says:
The Tribune’s dangerous business strategy has saddled the newspaper with billions of dollars in debt, and now employees in Baltimore are bearing the brunt of these decisions. We hope this is a move for The Sun to be purchased by local ownership. Tribune is just cutting staff and covering less.
Since 2000, when the Tribune bought the Sun, the number of Guild members at the paper has dropped from 800 to 290.
Many more media bankruptcies could be coming soon. Ian Welsh writes on Firedoglake that the main reason the Tribune Co. went under is that it
…has too much debt, and can’t borrow any more. It has too much debt because when [current owner Sam] Zell took over the company, he loaded the company down with the costs of his takeover.
This pattern is going to repeat with a lot of private equity acquisitions. Most were bought with the explicit intention to flip, but in the middle of a bad recession or maybe even a depression, with balance sheets burdened by debt related to their own takeover, no one wants to buy and the debt makes it hard for them to survive.
1 Comment
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
IBEW Local 1212
225 West 34th Street
Suite 1120 New York NY 10122
(212) 354-6770
To: IBEW Local 1212 represented employees at WPIX
From: Ralph Avigliano, Senior Representative
Date: 11 December 2008
As you know, Tribune filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 this past Monday.
Here is some information regarding the effect of this action on the IBEW represented employees at WPIX.
1) There are two types of bankruptcy:
Chapter 7 - Liquidation: closing the company and selling their assets and
Chapter 11 - Reorganization: their debt obligations are put on hold while the company restructures, reorganizes, renegotiates their debt obligations, and looks for new financing. Many companies, United Airlines for example, have gone through reorganization under Chapter 11 and emerged successfully.
2) Tribune has filed under Chapter 11. The company has been given 180 days to develop a reorganization plan acceptable to the bankruptcy court. Failing that, the court will consider alternate plans from Tribune’s creditors and other stakeholders.
3) Under Chapter 11, the company continues to operate, pay the employees and venders, and is under the supervision of a Judge, assisted by a committee of creditors (people Tribune owes money).
4) By law, Tribune must honor their union contracts. Although they can ask the union to modify the current contract and, if the union refuses, both parties present their case to the Judge. Even if the Judge rules in favor of Tribune, IBEW retains bargaining rights, requiring the company to negotiate with the union.
5) If the station is sold, IBEW retains the right to bargain with the new owners of WPIX.
6) The IBEW will review and share with the membership any changes proposed by Tribune.
7) Although pension and 401K plans can be affected, changes can only be made after all concerned parties have made their case to the Judge. If the court allows changes, the union can revisit this issue with the Judge at a later date to increase benefits.
9) Tribune has stopped severance payments to all laid off employees. Fortunately, no full time staff members of IBEW have been laid off to date, so we remain unaffected by this as well.
10) The IBEW will continue to represent the interests of the members at WPIX throughout Tribune’s bankruptcy process.