News Journal Deathwatch: Gannett In The Onion
Gannett Forces Employees To Take Unpaid Week Off
The Gannett Company, publisher of 85 daily newspapers across the United States, is making all its employees take a weeklong unpaid furlough to avoid layoffs. What do you think?
Annie King,
Systems Analyst
“Oh, great, another week of newspaper reruns.”Gil Geraci,
Unemployed
“Please tell me Mitch Albom doesn’t have to take a week off. Please. He’s all I have.”Rex Kelley,
Product Controls Consultant
“Great. Let’s just tell all the world leaders, terrorists, scientists, executives, artists, athletes, celebrities, and people of local interest to take the week off too, so we don’t have to worry about missing any news. Although, that would kind of be a news story in itself. This is turning into quite a pickle.”
Does anyone know if the NJ had the unpaid furlough?
I guess if the only other option is to lose my job, I’d take the week off.
Yes. Only salaried (“exempt”) employees are being made to take it in week-long chunks, though. Hourly people – the majority of the reporters, copy editors, photographers, etc. – can break it up so it’s not as big a hit to the paycheck all at once. Furlough days are being spaced out between now and the end of March, to make sure the paper still has enough people on hand to able to function, so it’s not like it’ll shut down.
Per gannettblog, the Detroit and Hawaii papers are exempt – Detroit because it’s busy switching over to dropping home delivery part of the week. Tucson was also exempted, but on Friday was told it’s being shut down.
Is this part of the wage shrinkage-deflation spiral?
holy shit!
Is Rex Kelly really David Anderson?
or vice versa
What’s the difference between this “furlough” and a temporary one-week layoff? Could these workers get unemployment for that week?
That’s an interesting question Mike. Does anyone know how the 2 week shutdowns at the car plants (history of course) were handled as far as unemployment goes?
Mike – There’s no difference. Same deal, better-sounding name.
If you take it all in a week-long chunk, you can get unemployment. Not so if you take it a day at a time. And practically speaking, it’d be virtually impossible for all the hourly workers to take the full week off and still get the paper out (and have it be recognizable as the NJ). They all have to take it by the end of March, and no one’s allowed to take it this week with the inauguration. So as a practical matter, the supervisors can file for unemployment, but the hourly workers can’t. Sucks.