The Los Angeles Times Decline

By Mike Carlson

1992

-Currently 14 Management Heads (Publisher, President, VP’s, Editors, etc.)

-Printing presses 3-color capacity increases 50%.

-Facilities Department outsourced.

-Part-time Mailroom employees laid-off.

1993

-Pressroom crew manning reduced from 11 people to 8 and 9.

-Employee buyout.

1994

-Company salary rate increase to counter inflation ended.

1995

-Employee buyout.

-Company layoffs.

-Insurance rate increases passed on to employees/retirees.

1996

-Employee’s retirement payout reduced 25% (30 yr. service cap)

1998

-Employee’s insurance rate increased to cover Domestic Partners Benefits.

-Employee buyout.

-Company layoffs.

1999

-Employees no longer receive company medical benefits when they retire.

2000

-Employees on Long Term Disability terminated sooner, 1 yr. of LTD instead of 2.5 yrs.

-Longer waiting period for Short Term Disability payments, now eight days.

-Company layoffs.

-No more employee incentive bonuses.

-Now 34 Management Heads (Publisher, President, VP’s, Editors, etc.)

-CEO Mark H. Willis leaves company with reports of 64 to 90 million dollars.

-Times Mirror Company sold to the Tribune Company.

-Medical Department employees laid-off.

2001

-Employees no longer receive 5 weeks vacation after 25 years of service.

-All truck drivers and mechanics laid-off, jobs outsourced.

-Employee buyout. “Voluntary Retirement Program.”

-Company layoffs.

2002

-No pay raise!

-Pressroom crew manning reduced even more, 5 to7 people.

-Pressroom ‘Specialist’ positions eliminated.

2004

-Company layoffs.

-Printing presses 3-color capacity increases another 25%.

2005

- Holiday overtime eliminated for Martin Luther King & President’s Day.

-Employees lose unused sick days at end of year.

-Number of Pressroom crews reduced.

2006

-Times’ Northridge plant closed/sold.

-Employees laid-off.

2007

-Employee buyout.

-Company layoffs.

-Employee’s retirement takes another big hit, goes from a defined plan to a “cash balance” fund.

-Sam Zell buys the Tribune Company and takes it private.

-Last Tribune CEO Dennis J. FitzSimons leaves with a reported 20 million.



2008

-Sam Zell must make annual debt payments of close to $1 billion.

-Company contributions to employee’s retirement now loaned out to help Sam Zell with purchase of the Tribune Company (new ESOP).

-Employee discrimination begins on health insurance! Smokers pay $100 a month more, working spouses not using their insurance, $75 a month more.

-Employee buyout.

-Company layoffs.

-A second round of buyouts & layoffs.

-A total of about 2,000 jobs have been eliminated of Tribune’s roughly 18,000 employees.

-Number of pages the newspapers publish is reduced.

-Pressmen no longer receive Company contributions to employee’s retirement because they went Union .

-Shift differential pay eliminated.



2009

-Employer-paid Short Term Disability dropped from 100% to 40%.

-Retirees granted medical insurance in the past are now reduced to “Secure Horizons” option only.

-Company layoffs.