Tribune CEOs seek $70 Million in Bonuses as Company Sinks
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It’s not like we needed one more example of greedy corporate executives at a bankrupt company making a grab for big bonuses while axing hundreds of employees and freezing wages for many others.
But that’s what Tribune Co. executives are doing as the multimedia conglomerate sinks under the weight of $13 billion in debt incurred by its corporate leaders in 2007. And they want to keep the bonuses a big secret.
The company filed for Chapter 11 protection last December and, in its most recent action, is seeking court permission to dole out nearly $70 million in executive bonuses. The company also requested the court seal much of the request. The request was denied.
The Newspaper Guild-CWA and the Teamsters, which represent employees at the Tribune-owned Baltimore Sun and WPIX-TV in New York, has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware to block the company’s plan to pay up to $69.9 million in executive bonus this year, including $20.6 million to the 10 top managers (about $2 million each). Some 700 other managers would share in the bonus booty.
Union Plus: Helping Financial Hand for Union Members in Tough Times
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The good folks at Union Plus want to remind union members the program offer a wide range of financial helping hands for union families facing hardships, including layoffs, in this staggering economy. Here’s a look.
Mortgage Assistance
* The Union Plus Save My Home Hotline may be able to help you avoid foreclosure. Call 1-866-490-5361.
* If you are a Union Plus mortgage holder and you are laid off, you can also apply for an interest-free loan from the Union Plus Mortgage Assistance Program. See details here.
Budgeting Assistance
- Receive a free budget analysis when you call Union Plus Credit Counseling at 1-877-833-1745. If you want additional help, you can enroll in a debt management plan (DMP) with no set-up fee and full reimbursement for the first year’s monthly fees.
- Be sure to take advantage of other consumer advice, tools and calculators at UnionDebtHelp.org.
- More budgeting tips and credit education 101 are available here.
539,000 Jobs Lost in April—Don’t Let Them Tell You This Is Good News
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Have you heard the one about the recession being over?
New data out today show 539,000 workers lost their jobs in April and the nation’s unemployment rate worsened to 8.9 percent, from 8.5 percent in March, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Jobs lost in April were spread across nearly all major private-sector industries. Jobs lost include 149,000 in manufacturing; 110,000 in the construction industry; 122,000 in professional and business services; and 47,000 in the services industry.
Even more worrisome, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) worsened by 498,000 to 3.7 million over the month and has risen by 2.4 million since the start of the recession in December 2007.
The official unemployment rate is bad. But the real unemployment rate is far worse. If those who are underemployed or who want a job but have given up looking are counted, the U.S. unemployment rate stands at 15.8 percent—more than 25 million Americans.
So it looks like the pundits who claim this Bush-instigated recession and the jobless bleed it created is over, haven’t talked with the millions of unemployed U.S. workers.
Bad, Bad, Bad Jobs Report: Unemployment at 8.1 Percent
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Stunningly bad news on the nation’s jobless rate today: Unemployment worsened to 8.1 percent in February, from 7.6 percent in January, the highest level in more than a quarter century, according to Labor Department data released today.
We’re now looking at historical comparisons of joblessness not to the bad recession of the Reagan years but to the Depression era. This from Bloomberg:
Employers eliminated 651,000 jobs, the third straight month that losses surpassed 600,000—the first time that’s happened since the data began in 1939.
