'Disturbing' Tribune Cuts No Surprise to Union Leaders

By: Joe Strupp Newsroom union leaders at Newsday of Melville, N.Y., and The Sun of Baltimore, the only two Tribune Company dailies with editorial bargaining units, were not surprised with today's announcement of further Tribune job cuts -- and said they actually welcomed the option of buyouts over layoffs.

But Sun reporter Bill Salganik, president of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, and Zachary Dowdy, president of Newsday's Graphic Communications Conference Local 406, said more cuts in the face of recent past buyouts at both papers, and other Tribune properties such as the Los Angeles Times, are unsettling.

"Continuing to cut journalists and cut customer service people is not a good thing," said Salganik, a 30-year Sun veteran who spoke just hours after the paper announced a buyout offer seeking to eliminate 45 jobs newspaperwide. "Those of us who work here don't feel like there are too many of us."

Salganik noted that the job cut announcement comes less than a year after cutbacks in June that included 40 buyouts and three layoffs. "People are getting hardened to it," he added.

He admitted, however, that buyouts are preferable to the alternative: "There are always some who are glad to leave with a check. We certainly like voluntary buyouts to layoffs."

Dowdy, a nine-year Newsday employee, agreed. "Buyouts are clearly better than layoffs," he said. "They are voluntary, and folks can be moving on to better things."

His newsroom, which underwent three waves of buyouts over an 18-month period about five years ago, had yet to find out specifics of any job-cut plan Wednesday afternoon. He said staffers are anticipating some kind of buyout package as well.

"We don?t know yet where it's going to affect us. It is not that much of a surprise," Dowdy said. "But it is still unsettling. It is always disturbing when people have to be let go."

Despite the job cuts announced today, which are expected to reduce Tribune's companywide workforce by up to 500 people, Salganik is not ready to denounce the recent takeover by new Tribune chairman Sam Zell.

"A change is welcome and he has only been in charge for six weeks," he said. "This still looks like the old Tribune, but we will see what happens."