Newark Star-Ledger Lays Off 25% Of Non-Unionized Newsroom Employees

Brutal:

In a grim day of reckoning at the state’s largest newspaper, the owners of The Star-Ledger today said they were eliminating the jobs of approximately 167 people, including 25 percent of the newsroom.

The sweeping job loss was part of a plan announced last week in an effort to greatly reduce costs and combine resources by consolidating the operations of The Star-Ledger, along with its sister publications in New Jersey and its online partner, NJ.com, which also announced cutbacks today.

The Star-Ledger, which has won three Pulitzer Prizes and several national awards, currently has 750 employees, of which approximately 500 are non unionized. None of the cuts announced today will affect unionized personnel, who are covered under existing labor contracts.

The cuts will mean the loss of 40 of the 156 reporters, editors, photographers and support staff in The Star-Ledger newsroom, which had already seen a parade of people leaving in recent weeks over concerns about the paper’s future and the continuing fiscal pressures affecting newspapers across the country. One of those leaving voluntarily had been slated to be cut.

The newsroom is not unionized.

Will the non-unionized, union-hating editorial writers continue to write editorials about the evils of teachers unions and such?

Or were they laid off in the carnage too?

Oh, but some of these Star-Ledger employees may be hired back - at lower pay:

 Those being let go will not necessarily leave immediately. In packets that were being handed out this morning, those being told their jobs were being eliminated were offered severance packages if they agreed to stay with the newspaper until NJ Advance Media, new media company being formed, is up and running.

Star-Ledger employees receiving offer letters of jobs with the new company in some cases were being given different positions or titles, some at lower pay. They will have a week to decide to accept the offer, the offer letters said. 

The unions took hard contracts last year including job losses, so unionized employees didn't go untouched in this mess.

It is a very challenging environment for the creative classes these days - especially writers.

Soon there will only be jobs in finance and services - everything in between will be gone, killed by the Internets, technological advances and globalization.

Maybe Kenneth Cole Can Put Up A Billboard?

110 factory workers died in a factory fire in Bangladesh this weekend.

According to Al Jazeera, over 600 factory workers have died in factory fires in Bangladesh over the past six years.

Factory conditions are abysmal there and the workers could use a union to protect them.

But union organizers who have pushed for safety inspections and other protections for workers have been murdered in Bangladesh because unions are, you know, bad for business.

Anti-union festishist Kenneth Cole has many of his products made in Bangladesh.

I can't tell you if the factory that burned this weekend was making Cole products, but workers at a Bangladeshi factory that burned in 2010 were in the process of making Kenneth Cole products among other things when they were killed in that fire.

29 people died in the December 2010 fire that was eerily similar to the one that killed 110 workers this weekend - they were both caused by faulty electrical wiring, the doors at both factories were locked and the workers couldn't get out in time

Now Kenneth Cole enjoys putting up billboards in NY about social and political issues.

Earlier this year he put up a billboard entitled "Teachers' Rights Vs. Students' Rights" and asked the question: "Shouldn't Everybody Be Well Red?"

The billboard suggested people go to Cole's website where they were further educated on the evils of teachers unions and how much they harm the children.

After a public outcry, Cole was forced to take the billboard down and step back from the message that unionized teachers harm students.

Meanwhile workers employed in Bangladesh making Kenneth Cole products continue to die in fires. 

I await a West Side Highway billboard decrying all of the dead factory workers in these totally preventable tragedies. 

Cole said the billboards are about bringing important messages to New Yorkers in provocative ways to make them think.

I can't think of a more important message that could come from the anti-union Cole, the mogul who is complicit in the murder of a union organizer, the man who continues to make his products in factories that keep burning down and killing his workers - make these factories safe so people don't have to die.

I am sure Cole's people are getting on that billboard right now.

Obama Sells Out Workers On Korean Trade Agreement

Firedoglake covers the latest Obama broadside against the American worker pretty well:

This morning the White House announced that the following noble protectors of American workers endorsed the NAFTA-style Korea Free Trade agreement:

US Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue; President of the National Association of Manufacturers John Engler; Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit; JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon; Amway CEO and top Republican funder Dick DeVos; Big Bank lobby group Financial Services Roundtable President Steve Bartlett; and more. [Also, the MPAA]

That’s an impressive array of people who are dedicated to protecting the ultra-rich and not giving a damn about real working Americans or American jobs. How could the Obama White House top that?

Here’s the second round of endorsements from the White House for NAFTA-style Korea Free Trade; mind you the White House is actually bragging about these names:

* PhRMA
* Wal-Mart
* RIAA
* AT&T
* Mitch McConnell

It’s like a party for the Corporate Axis of Evil, and Obama’s throwing a kegger.

How's that for Change We Can Believe In?

The CEO's of Walmart, Citigroup, Amway, AT&T, JP Morgan Chase, big bank lobbyists, the chamber of commerce and Big Pharma backing an Obama trade agreement that will sell the American worker out and help enrich corporate coffers.

And let's remember, it has ALREADY been the most profitable quarter for American corporations EVER while the unemployment rate has gone up to 9.8% and long-term unemployment is even WORSE.

Heckuva job, Barack!

Still selling the American worker down the river even after corporate shill Rahm "F#$% The UAW!" Emanuel has left the building.

I guess we know what Obama really values.