Journal Register Co. files for bankruptcy - again

Three JRC papers in Pennsylvania agreed to a new contract. Similiar threats by JRC, but these unions won't get their pay cut, will only have one involuntary layoff per unit, and get a 3 percent contribution from the company for the 401k.

Not great, but better than what the Michigan unions are getting offered.

 

The best positive of working in Trenton is that we didn't pay for insurance; I still think union folks don't pay.

 

At various stops in my career- outside of journalism- I have worked on health insurance plans. When I worked on them insurers were reluctant to cover groups where employees had to contribute more than 30%. Because when the contributions went above 30% the young employees making in the low 20's would stop contributing. If you are making 25K, are 25 and healthy you may not want to pay 50% of the $8,000 cost of a medical policy. Then per capita costs would soar because the remaining group of employees would consist of older, less healthy people who would spend thier dollar on health insurance.

Which is another way of saying that I think the next step after a 50% deductible will be no group plan.

 

Ding, ding, we have a winner!

Also, somebody else pointed out earlier that if the employees went on strike, the new company wouldn't hire them. One of the things that the new employers count on is the employees having to take their offer because they wouldn't be able to receive unemployment because they rejected a job. If the new company didn't want to hire them for striking, then the workers would be able to get unemployment because JRC already fired them.

 

There is gonna' come a day when everyone in all industries have to rise up and say, "Do better. You're suffocating us." There is only so much "bootstrapping" can accomplish.

 

I agree with you, except for one thing - if there's a pushback, JRC can use the Newhouse card and say, "Fine. We'll cut your publication to x days a week, we'll need fewer people and the pay will be considerably less." That's exactly what happened at The Ann Arbor News/annarbor.com - not a very long drive on I-94 from Macomb County. The folks who make these decisions (Paton and his minions) are SOBs and would do it, from what I have seen from them.

I was a part-timer for many years at The News, and I got an offer to work at annarbor.com - as long as I took a 60 percent pay cut. I never worked for annarbor.com. It wasn't worth the time and effort. And, the job they wanted me to do eventually was eliminated, anyway.

 

It's inevitable anyways. Might as well fight for what you can get.

 

Could be worse. Could be owned by the Retirement Systems of Alabama.

 

The union shops already took a 15 percent cut in base wages when their previous contract was scrapped in the PREVIOUS JRC bankruptcy in 2009 (which the unions agreed to on the basis the company was in critical condition and needed the concessions to survive). Plus healthcare premiums and other deductions were boosted to the point it was essentially a 20 percent pay cut.

So the new proposal of another 15 percent cut is in addition to the previous cuts -- anybody who survives the next round of cuts will be working at less than 70% of what they made in 2007.

The new proposal also calls for the elimination of ALL seniority rights, grievance hearings, staffing minimums and any restrictions on unlimited outsourcing at the complete discretion of the company.

This "bankruptcy" is a shell game: most of the people in the new group, 21CMH, that is buying the "assets" of JRC, are the same group which has run JRC the last 4-5 years. They are selling the company to themselves. Basically the whole thing is a smokescreen to allow them to breach all their contract obligations (to EVERYBODY, not just employees).


Somewhere hot and smoky Old Bobby is smiling.

 

So true, slap... *sigh*

 

I was told yesterday that the 15 percent pay cuts and 50 percent costs for health insurance won't be imposed on nonunion papers. Considering the BS my co-workers and I already have been through, I'll believe it when I see it (or don't see it).

 

I would hope the bankruptcy judge calls them out on it, but I highly doubt that will happen.