January 19, 2007
MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE’
IS DEVASTATED
Time Inc. Wields Unmerciful Axe
Two years ago, Ann Moore, Time Inc.’s Chief Executive, was hailing its employees as its “most valuable resource.” Thursday, after completing a year in which it notched a profit of about 18%, Time Inc. it announced plans to slash almost 300 jobs company-wide, slightly more than 100 of them Guild-represented.
The only hint of good news to Guild-represented employees, is that the job cuts will be conducted under the terms set down in the contract that was due to expire on February 1. The severance pay formula designated in the pact is the one that will be followed. When talks began in January, the company balked at the usual agreement to keep the current contract in effect while a new one was being negotiated. However, at the most recent session held on Tuesday, January 16, Time Inc. agreed to extend the current pact until March 22, while the parties continue to negotiate.
The staff cuts were made in a series of meetings on Thursday except at SPORTS ILLUSTRATED where the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday was being celebrated. At S.I., where Guild officials were told up to 22 positions we represent are going to be sliced (we later learned it may be 23), the traumatic news was dispersed in an email.
Guild officials are normally given advance notice of details of a layoff. This year, Time Inc. officials apparently decided a half hour’s notice was enough, scheduling a meeting with the Guild at 9:30 a.m. and a series of meetings with employees at 10. But then we learned, even as were being given details of the job losses at 9, four members of PEOPLE magazine’s Miami Bureau were simultaneously being told that the operation there would close.
What the Guild was told was that at TIME magazine, the company will be seeking “up to 40” volunteers to leave their jobs including:
3 artists
3 copy editors
1 negative reader
1 assistant photo lab technician
2 news desk assistants
2 news desk editors
1 letters correspondent
4 research librarians
8 reporter/researchers in New York
1 reporter/researcher in the District of Columbia
1 reporter/researcher who handles the Map Room in New York
4 editorial assistants
Any combination of 5 reporter/writers or reporter/editors
In addition, the Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta bureaus will be closed bringing the total job loss at TIME of up to 49 people.
At PEOPLE, Time Inc. said it was seeking “up to” 24 volunteers including:
2 page production specialists
3 copy editors
3 negative readers
1 low resolution scanner
1 letters correspondent
5 reporter researchers
3 writer/reporters
7 writer/editors
In addition, Time Inc. said it was closing the PEOPLE bureaus in Chicago, District of Columbia, and Miami bringing the total job loss to up to 38.
At SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time Inc. said it was seeking “up to” 22 cuts, including:
3 copy clerks
1 copy coordinator
1 copy editor
1 imaging specialist
3 photographers
1 news desk assistant
1 reporter researcher
4 editorial assistants
1 writer/reporter
6 writer/editors
In the meantime, the Guild is embroiled in a very difficult negotiation with Time Inc. management, which has proposals on the table to slash notice pay altogether in cases of job reduction. Notice pay ranges from a low of 4 weeks’ pay for less than a year of service to 24 weeks’ pay for more than 30 years of service in addition to severance pay.
Severance pay is three weeks’ pay per year of service for the first $25,000, two weeks’ pay per year for the next $5,000 and 1 week’s pay per year of service after that. The company wants to reduce that amount to 2 weeks’ pay per year of service with a 52-week cap.
The Guild’s strength at the bargaining table is derived through its membership. If you’re not a member, support the union in our effort to maintain an equitable contract and join the Guild. Contact Unit Chairperson Alex Blanco at 522-4187 or Local Guild Representative Bob Townsend at 212-730-1532.
# # # # #
1/19/07