By: Mark Fitzgerald The Chicago Sun-Times is offering union-represented newsroom employees aged 55 and older a buyout package that includes severance pay and extended health insurance coverage, a Chicago Newspaper Guild official said Friday afternoon.
It wasn't immediately clear how many journalists will accept buyouts, which have a deadline of 5 p.m. Jan. 18. Sun-Times parent Sun-Times Media Group (STMG) last week told the Guild it intended to cut 32 union-represented newsroom jobs as part of its plan to cut operating costs by $50 million in the next six months.
Misha Davenport, a reporter who chairs the Guild local's Sun-Times unit, said the package includes the standard severance pay of two weeks salary for each year of employment to a maximum of 50 weeks.
In addition, employees who accept the package will be placed on a re-hire list for 18 months, and receive health insurance at their employee cost for that period. They can choose to waive the re-hire possibility, and instead get three and a half years of health insurance at COBRA payment of $75 a week for a single insured or $100 weekly for dual or family coverage.
Employees who accept a buyout can also opt to receive $10,000 less taxes in lieu of continued health coverage.
"It's a great plan, but you're getting people to think about retirement a lot sooner than they would have, so naturally they are going to want to talk about with family and financial advisers," Davenport told E&P.
He said the package was crafted after about five and a half hours of negotiations.
The Guild is continuing to negotiate alternatives to non-voluntary layoffs for people who do not fit the buyout criteria, Davenport added.
On Thursday, the Sun-Times laid off five journalists not represented by the Guild. Three of them - Michelle Stevens, Lloyd Sachs, and Michael Gillis -- served on the eight-person editorial board. Also laid off were Assistant Managing Editor Avis Weathersbee and Sunday Editor Marcia Frellick.
Business Editor Dan Miller resigned on Thursday. Miller, 62,
told E&P he decided the shrinking business section would not need two editors, himself and Deputy Business Editor Polly Smith.
(This story has been corrected. An earlier version misstated the maximum payout of severence in the buyout package.)
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