April 26 alumni luncheon

PD Editorial Retirees & Expatriates

Casual unstructured lunch troupe

Gather for lunch on the last Fridays of January,

April, July and October

Spouses and guests always welcome

NEXT LUNCHEON: Noon, Friday, April 26, 2019

PLACE:  Don’s Lighthouse, 8905 Lake Avenue, at the end of the West Shoreway.  Use Valet parking or park in the lot next to the building.

MENU:   We can order off the menu and have separate checks.

RSVP: By Tuesday, April 23 to either:

            Janet French (216) 221-2318 or email jabfr519@cox.net or

            Jo Ann Pallant, (440) 734-1923 or email japa

A list of who's gone

Cleveland Scene, the alternative weekly, ran the names and short bios of the men and women who are now gone from Editorial.  Many took retirement.
Here's the link:

https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2019/04/01/heres-who-the-plain-dealer-laid-off-today

Tom Feran was laid off, came back and wrote about the layoffs.

The New Yorker interviewed Tom Feran on writing about the recent layoffs after he was one of the those now gone. Tom gave a great history of the PD labor machinations.




Here's the link: https:/https://www.newyorker.com/news/as-told-to/the-reporter-who-wrote-about-layoffs-at-the-cleveland-plain-dealer-after-he-was-laid-off?fbclid=IwAR2tNp0LHCNj9sP43DRafv0sKowBjL0hvCsjA8DNH1uH6Q4-pA8mEXffJbg

Cleveland.com version of today PD news

Plain Dealer lays off a third of unionized newsroom staff

Updated Apr 1, 4:39 PM; Posted Apr 1, 4:35 PM

The Plain Dealer

The Plain Dealer's printing and production building on Tiedeman Road

By Tom Feran, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Plain Dealer on Monday laid off 14 newsroom employees as part of a staff reduction first announced in December. The 14, most of them reporters and all members of Local 1 of the News Guild of the Communication Workers of America, account for about a third of the unionized news-gathering staff. 

One additional journalist will depart later this month. The company had earlier announced plans to eliminate 29 other jobs in May by shifting its page-production work to a centralized outside system. Three of those production staffers will move to the newsroom, however, reducing the net loss of jobs there to 12. 

"Today, we share a sense of loss,” Plain Dealer President and Editor George Rodrigue said in a statement. “The essence of any layoff is that good people lose their jobs. We regret that, and we wish our colleagues well.

“In the near future, we will be refocusing our efforts to invest in deeper coverage of key topics that are of high value to our community. We will be sharing more about those plans in the coming weeks.”

Said Ginger Christ, Plain Dealer News Guild unit chair: “Today was an incredibly stressful day. We lost talented colleagues and the community lost important voices. The damage isn’t just the loss of jobs. It’s the loss of information vital to the life of the city.”

Rodrigue blamed the cuts on the continuing decline in advertising revenue that has battered virtually all mass media, including television, radio and digital-first news organizations such as cleveland.com. A Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor statistics from 2008 to 2017 found overall newsroom employment dropped nationally by 23 percent and in newspaper newsrooms employment dropped by 45 percent. More than 2,400 media jobs have been eliminated so far this year, according to Business Insider. 

The Guild said in a statement that The Plain Dealer had a unionized staff of 340 journalists two decades ago. That soon will be reduced to 33. "Many of our members volunteered for layoffs to save the job of another, which speaks volumes about the respect those in our union have for each other,” Christ said. “We find some relief that editor George Rodrigue allowed members to volunteer for this layoff.” 

The Guild unit, meanwhile, voted over the weekend to extend its contract with The Plain Dealer through Feb. 28, 2021. The Guild said the agreement “continues protections for overtime, vacation and severance pay" and eliminates unpaid furlough days that were accepted as part of a pay reduction in 2009. The agreement provides the option for laid-off employees to extend health care benefits.

As part of the agreement, the Guild gave up its grievance over The Plain Dealer’s plan to outsource production jobs to a subsidiary of Advance Publications, the paper’s parent company.

14 laid off in editorial today. No April fools joke

Fourteen people were laid off today in Editorial today. In May some 24 copy editor and layout jobs will be outsourced.  That leaves less than 30 to put out a paper.

Here's a notice from the Plain Dealer union of the Newspaper Guild:

After months of difficult negotiations, members of The Plain Dealer unit of the Northeast Ohio Newspaper Guild, Local 1, came to an agreement Friday afternoon with the company.

The agreement, which members voted to ratify in a vote over the weekend, extends the Guild’s contract with The Plain Dealer through February 28, 2021, and continues important protections for overtime, vacation and severance pay. It also eliminated furlough days, which on average will return $2,700 to each member annually.

For those who are laid off from the newsroom on April 1 and whose jobs will be outsourced in early May, the agreement provides the option of extended health care benefits.

The Plain Dealer also agreed to explore ways to make sure our newsroom reflects the diverse community we serve.

There’s nothing that can make up for losing the jobs of 35 journalists, many of whom have dedicated decades to the newspaper and to the Greater Cleveland community.

The Guild was in the position of trying to come to an agreement that would benefit all of its members -- those whose jobs are being eliminated and those who will be left behind.

In making this deal, the Guild gave up a grievance over whether The Plain Dealer had the right to outsource the jobs to Advance Local, a subsidiary of its parent company, Advance Publications. The Guild did not give up its ability to pursue similar grievances in the future, and it maintains that Advance Local and Advance Ohio, which operates cleveland.com, are not completely separate entities from The Plain Dealer.

“This has been an incredibly challenging few months for our members, all of whom continued to produce excellent journalism amidst so much uncertainty and stress. Fortunately, we were able to come to a deal that provides some benefit to everyone. That’s because we have a union. Without the Guild, we wouldn't have had a seat at the table to advocate for our members,” said PD News Guild unit chair Ginger Christ. “We will continue to fight for our members, for our unit and for the community, which deserves great journalism and a free and independent press.”