“Reporters, editors, photographers, page designers and others have been told to wait by their phones between 8 and 10 a.m. to learn whether they have been let go, or whether they should show up for work,” a post on the Save The Plain Dealer’s Facebook page says.
The group plans two gatherings in Cleveland Wednesday: A rally at 6 p.m. outside the Plain Dealer offices, and a get-together at the Market Garden Brewery at 7 p.m.
Plain Dealer science writer John Mangels, who helped organize the Save The Plain Dealer campaign, wrote on Facebook Wednesday that he will leave. “The PD’s long, admirable commitment to in-depth science coverage was ending, so I volunteered to be among those laid off today.”
Plain Dealer Guild President Harlan Spector told Crain’s Jay Miller “the paper was reneging on an agreement about the number of jobs that would be retained by the newspaper company,” Miller writes.
“They told us we’d have 110 jobs guaranteed,” he said. “Now it looks like they are going to do something else and bring our numbers below that.”
…
In an email response to the Guild’s charges, Terry Egger, president and publisher of Plain Dealer Publishing Co., said, “We have always negotiated with them in good faith and have been able to reach and honor all agreements. This has been our practice in the past and we will continue to do the same in the future.”
A brief timeline of recent Plain Dealer changes recorded on Poynter:
Plain Dealer journalists plan pre-emptive campaign against reduced print, staff cuts (Nov. 9)
Plain Dealer editor, publisher: Business requires ‘significant reset’ (Nov. 19)
Cleveland Plain Dealer tells Guild it plans to cut about one-third of newsroom staff (Dec. 4)
Cleveland Plain Dealer union gets new deal that protects staff from future layoffs, raises pay 8% (Dec. 7)
