Tribune seeks OK to continue management incentive plan

(Reuters) — Tribune Co. is seeking approval from a bankruptcy court to allow it to continue its management incentive plan, which seeks to pay around 640 management employees up to $42.5 million.

Under the plan, the company will pay $16.4 million if it achieves "threshold" performance of its planned consolidated operating cash flow, $32.4 million for "target" performance and $42.5 million for "maximum" performance.

Tribune, owner of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, said the incentive plan has been a key component of its compensation structure since 1997. The payout on the current plan is lower than the court approved 2009 and 2010 plans, it said.

In a court filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Del., the company said the approval of the plan "continues to be critically important to maintain proper incentives for the management team as the company strives to sustain its performance despite the strains of the Chapter 11 process."

Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy protection in 2008, a year after billionaire real estate developer Sam Zell led a leveraged buyout. The deal loaded the company with about $8 billion in additional debt in a transaction financed in part by company contributions to an employee stock option plan.

The case is In Re Tribune Co., U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 08-13141

Read more: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20110831/NEWS06/110839976/tribune-seeks-ok-to-continue-management-incentive-plan#ixzz1WeuWihDu
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Los Angeles Times to Layoff 10 in Pressroom

Layoff Notice 8-11-11

CONTINUE TO START WORK BEFORE YOUR SHIFT, KEEP HANGING ROLLS WITHOUT A PARTNER, KEEP SKIPPING YOUR BREAKS, CONTINUE TO COME BACK EARLY FROM LUNCH.
Why do we keep doing these things that make it so much easier for the company to lay more of us off.
When will we "Stop helping the company eliminate our jobs"!

NLRB finds Santa Barbara newspaper committed multiple unfair labor practices.

After years of battle at Santa Barbara News-Press, the GCC/IBT won a major victory today when the National Labor Relations Board unanimously found that the publisher committed multiple unfair labor practices during a union organizing campaign by newsroom employees. The Board ordered Ampersand Publishing LLC to offer reinstatement to eight fired journalists and other among other remedies.

The GCC/IBT organizing campaign began in the summer of 2006 after 15 journalists resigned from the newspaper to protest what they claimed was interference with their reporting of the news. An election petition was filed in August of 2006 by GCC employees voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Union.

In addition to reinstatement, the Board ordered the News-Press to cease and desist from the illegal activity, rescind discriminatory evaluations of four union supporters; rescind suspension notices sent to eleven employees; and make all discriminated employees whole with backpay awards.

In a highly unusual step, Chairman Liebman and Member Becker also ordered that a senior management official read, or be present at the reading of, the complete NLRB notice to be posted. Read the full decision here.

Montreal Gazette Locks Out 100 Employees

The Montreal Gazette locked out several dozen employees Sunday evening. 100 employees who work in the mail room and and the printing facility rejected a recent contract offer, then showed up for their shifts on Sunday only to be told they were not allowed inside. STORY:

http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110808/mtl_gazette_110808/20110808/?hub=MontrealHome