October 20, 2003 

People to Cut 50 Hours in Copy Department

Cross-divisional volunteers period to run until October 28

People magazine has announced that it will be cutting 50 hours from the schedule of its Copy Department. It decided to cut hours rather than specific positions to encourage "flexibility' and "creativity" in how the layoff is handled. 

Management has said to the Guild that volunteers from within People will be accepted until October 28, as well volunteers from other magazines. Thus far there are no confirmed volunteers from within People. 

"Shift swaps" will be considered

One signal of genuine flexibility on the part of management is that in addition to the usual job swaps across magazines that are specified under the Guild Contract, cross-divisional volunteers of individual shifts will be considered. Under the cross-divisional job-swap system, someone from outside the targeted magazine takes a severance package and leaves the company, freeing up a job for the layoff target if the department boss from the outside magazine agrees to hire the targeted employee. Here's how the "shift swap" would work: 

1. A Copy Editor or Copy Coordinator outside of People (the other Guild-covered magazines are TIME, Sports Illustrated, Money, Fortune and FSB) would volunteer to give up a shift in exchange for receiving a severance package based upon the number of hours to be given up.  The volunteer may come forward to her or his copy chief, to Julie Pettinelli at Human Resources (522-3329) or to a Guild officer (John Shostrom, Unit Chair, 522-3965; Alex Blanco, Membership Chair, 522-4187; Edith Fried, Grievance Chair, 522-3867).

2. People copy persons who are the potential targets of the cuts would then be able to interview with the volunteer's copy chief. If the copy chief accepts the interviewee, then the "shift swap" is accomplished. A warning: The copy chief is the decision-maker; there is no obligation to accept cross-divisional volunteers, but the Guild encourages all the copy chiefs to be as accommodating as is possible in this traumatic situation.

Seniority rules?

While the Guild appreciates some elements of the "hours" approach, it strongly objects to the proposal put forth to the Guild and some People Copy Department employees on October 15. This would equally target all 35-hour and 28-hour persons in the department while sparing the rest. 

Here's the problem: Almost all of the most senior Copy staffers are full-timers, and the Guild Contract with Time Inc. contains a fairly strong (though not absolute) seniority provision. In most cases, these dedicated employees have become full-timers through a tortuous process of longtime part-time work, during which they made themselves available for extra shifts. Gradually, over decades, they worked themselves up to full-time hours, and now they are in effect being singled out for their steadfastness and loyalty. In addition to losing current pay, these career employees could lose a lot in potential pension benefits because the pension calculation is based on one's highest five-year earning period, which is almost always your last five years unless your hours get cut near the end of your career. 

The Guild will be meeting with the department's employees tomorrow to formulate a response to the company's proposals, to prepare for the possibility that not enough hours will be volunteered by the October 28 deadline and involuntary layoffs will have to be implemented. 

Killing the goose

The Guild finds this layoff totally unnecessary and believes that the hours are required by the department to produce the ever-increasing number of pages that the People franchise generates. 

Our company's name was changed from AOL Time Warner to Time Warner on October 16, supposedly to "more accurately represent the portfolio of our valuable businesses," according to CEO and Chairman Dick Parsons. (Translation: AOL isn't worth much.) The reality is that the slashing and cutting at even the most valuable divisions, such as the People Group, continues. Has Time Warner forgotten the story of the goose that laid the golden eggs? 

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10/20/03