Tribune CEOs seek $70 Million in Bonuses as Company Sinks
 |
|
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.
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.
