October 18, 2001

Is Time Inc. Crazy? 

Mailroom elimination shows shocking insensitivity to all the company's employees 

The elimination of Time Inc.’s Distribution Services department, announced today at noon, is causing jaws to drop all over the company. In the midst of by far the greatest crisis in mail delivery that the country (and the company) has ever seen, management is firing the entire mailroom staff and replacing it immediately with a company called Archer -- and as of now, Time Inc. hasn't told the Guild a thing about Archer beyond that they are a distribution-services company. 

The timing is unfortunate, to put it too mildly. The anthrax crisis, which already hit Rockefeller Center with the discovery of the disease in an NBC employee, potentially threatens everyone at Time Inc., and it is obvious that the media are prime targets of the deadly mailings. 

In a crisis, throw them out! 

Time Inc.’s response? Get rid of dozens of trusted longtime employees, hire an unknown firm of unknown quality to deliver the mail and packages, and further terrify the already frightened workforce. The mailroom had already been burdened by the drastic reduction in its staff caused by a previous layoff, attrition and June’s ERIP program, which altogether cut the staff roughly in half. Now all of the rest will be gone by the end of today. 

Time Inc. may have little control over the outsourced workers. It obviously will not be able to give anywhere near the level of supervision and guidance that it currently provides to those who do what is now being called "the most dangerous job in America" -- delivering the mail. 

What’s in it for the now-outside employees? Not much 

Here’s what the new workers can look forward to: 

Greatly diminished pay. The company is making this change to save money and has admitted this to the Guild. It will be spending less on this outside agency than it was before, and that company will pocket a good percentage of that fee, leaving still less for the employees. 

No benefits. One of the reasons that Time Inc. has had such a stable mailroom over the years is that the Guild-negotiated benefits here have been quite good. Of course they are not as good as they once were, but Archer is unlikely to give generous benefits, if any, to low-paid employees. A good benefits package is often considered too expensive as a percentage of a company’s total outlay to low-paid employees. Time Inc., with many highly paid workers, can better afford to give benefits to mailroom employees. 

No Guild coverage and protection. The workers will have no rights to challenge unfair disciplinary measures, no right to collectively bargain for wages and benefits, no right to severance and notice pay in the event of layoffs. In essence, no rights. The Guild has taken on grievance after grievance for the mailroom employees over the years, and it has won a lot of victories for them. And even when we haven’t won, the Guild grievance officers have always let management know that we are looking very closely at the mailroom and will keep challenging unfair, discriminatory or arbitrary actions. The Guild appreciates the hard and often thankless work that the mailroom employees do to make the jobs of all employees easier, and it urges the company to reconsider this precipitous action. 

A less-diverse Time Inc. workforce 

It is quite telling that in the Equal Opportunity article of the Guild’s contract with Time Inc., there is no "Minorities" number mentioned in the Distribution Services hiring goals. The reason is that there have always been a large percentage of people of color in the mailroom; perhaps uniquely in Time Inc., there has been no need for affirmative action in that department. The mailroom has provided steady work with good benefits and excellent opportunities for promotions (and provided good diversity numbers for the company as well, particularly among managers).  What are the numbers going to look like after the mailroom is gone? Pretty bad -- for minorities and for the company. Maybe the company will pledge to hire a minority writer, editor or photographer for every person of color that it has dismissed in the mailroom.  Not a chance -- remember the hiring freeze? 

Fear hits a home run 

For the rest of us, this move is a disaster waiting to happen. In the midst of the anthrax panic, people with decades of experience will be replaced and supervised by an unknown company. The level of confidence among Time Incers in the mail system may plummet at the exact moment when it needs to be highest. What will the new workers' training consist of? What experience and knowledge will these new non-Time Inc. employees bring to this job, which has been taken for granted in the past but now looms as literally life-saving? There have been no answers so far, only assertions that Archer can do the job better and that Time Inc. would not have gone ahead with the move unless it was sure that the security issues were properly addressed. The Guild hopes that these things are true, though we still object to the abolition of 29 union jobs. The Guild implores Time Inc. to rethink this action and maintain a stable, Guild-covered, company-run mailroom. Our lives may depend on it.

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10/18/01