Furloughs Go Ahead for 'Detroit Free Press' Newsroom

By: Detroit Free Press newsroom employees will take a five-day furlough in exchange for no job cuts through March.

Detroit Newspaper Guild members voted in favor of the plan Sunday. The unpaid days off will be scheduled in 2010.

The furloughs will include editor and publisher Paul Anger and other non-union newsroom managers. Free Press reporter M.L. Elrick says their participation helped sway his colleagues.

Rich Harshbarger, a vice president at the Detroit Media Partnership, says there would have been immediate layoffs at the Free Press without the agreement. The partnership runs the business operations at the Free Press and The Detroit News.

Lou Mleczko, president of Guild Local 22, says Detroit News newsroom employees probably will consider a similar plan.