D-Day Has Arrived At My Shop. Wish Me Luck.

That's immaterial. Would you trust them to interview your dog?

 

you only cover us when we misquote your dog

 

They'll also have to take pictures of his dog.

 

And blog about the walk later, while Twitting. Plus, they wouldn't get extra for picking up the feces, since the managers will say you need to deal with the crap anyway.

 

Which is a big reason why -- along with $4.50 a gallon gas last spring that was killing me -- I'm not teaching news reporting at the small university I taught at for six years.

I couldn't, in all good conscience, continue to beat the drum for an industry hell-bent on committing hara-kiri.

 

The saga continues here.

Here are the lowest three persons on the seniority list with the lowest being listed first:

News Reporter
Staff Photographer
Me (Sports Reporter)

Two of three copy editors are considering bumping down — actually, one has decided to. But neither has ever taken photos. Neither has blogged. Worse yet, reporters (sports included) and photographers are in the same class/wage bracket and are therefore considered equal in the language of the contract.

But, our contract language is so flimsy no one seems to know if the bottom two on the seniority list are bumped outright and then someone has to be trained as a photog. Or, if everyone has to take their own photos if the photog is bumped out — threfore increasing our reporter count and decreasing our photographer count. Or, if the photog can be saved and the two reporters go, despite seniority.

Here's the language regarding bumping: An employee can bump a person of lower seniority within their class or a person of lower seniority in a lower class provided they have the qualifications, skill, ability, knowledge and experience to perform the work required."

The problems? Does "someone" mean anyone and not necessarily the lowest person? Does that mean the lowest seniority member can be saved? Who deems the "qualifications, skill, ability, knowledge and experience" satisfactory? That'll be decided in a union/management fight to the finish.

It's a fucking gong show in here.

 

This is amazing, Pete. Bumping down? Again, there's no thought to quality. How have newspapers gone to this low level? This would be like a law firm laying off the best attorneys and going with the low paid kids. Amazing stuff. Bumping down??

 

At the risk of sounding like a total rube, can someone explain bumping down to me?

 

Colective agreements have classes based on experience and/or wage.

At our shop, the agreement puts union members in the following classes:

Class A — section editors (sports, lifestyles, opinion)
Class B — copy editors
Class C — reporters, photographers

If someone in A is laid off, they can "bump" someone with less seniority in their class or a lower class out of a job.

Basically, I could lose my job to a copy editor who hasn't taken a photo or written a story or worked a beat or left the office in a decade.

 

This isn't over.

If the economy doesn't improve, more and more layoffs will happen until a paper literally has the lowest amount of people possible to get the job done.

 

or fewer

far fewer

 

Thank you for the info, sir.