Saturday, October 07, 2017

After 135 Years, the L.A. Times Is Unionizing. What Took So Long?

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2017 AT 8:11 A.M. BY JASON MCGAHAN

The last straw was when the company took away its employees' accrued vacation.
Journalists at the Los Angeles Times were saving up their time off, using it as a financial cushion in the event their jobs were sacrificed in a future round of layoffs. 
The new policy — so-called unlimited vacation — meant the Times' parent company, tronc, no longer had to pay out for unused time.
When unveiling the policy, tronc told staffers to use up all of their vacation by the end of the year. Voila! A form of compensation was taken away, a guaranteed benefit replaced with a policy that, according to employees, is unreliable and unevenly applied.
Like many newspapers, the Times has been through years of high-profile corporate restructuring — including bankruptcy and takeovers, layoffs and lawsuits, deep cost-cuts and a revolving door of publishers, editors, owners and CEOs. Top talent has left the paper. Health care costs have risen. The newsroom hasn't had an across-the-board salary increase since around 2009.

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