The New York Times is expected to layoff 21 Newspaper Guild-represented employees this week, the Guild announced in a press release Monday.
Though it remains uncertain how many non-Guild employees may also lose their jobs, the 21 cut positions will push The Times past its goal of reducing staff by 100 to, what Capital New York speculates, may exceed 110. The layoffs come on the heels of 57 Guild-represented Times staffers, and close to 30 "excluded employees," accepting buyouts from the newspaper in recent weeks.
The Guild harshly criticized The Times for not only exceeding its target of 100 job cuts, but also for hiring a number of new workers without making a substantial effort to retrain veteran employees.
"Management's decision to exceed its announced goal of 100 newsroom job cuts comes after it turned down the buyout requests of threeGuild-represented employees, hired numerous new employees over past six months and made no effort to retrain long-term employees. Since the Guild and The Times settled the current contract in November 2012, union membership has increased by 100," the press release read.
According to the Guild, targeted employees will receive pink slips on Tuesday and Wednesday. While many are expected to be told their employment at The New York Times ends this week, the company will offer severance packages and two weeks of notice pay to most.
"In the coming days and weeks, the Guild will examine all possible alternatives to the layoffs," the press release read. "The Guild also will study all information management used to target employees to make sure that the contract was followed. If any violations are found, the Guild will take all necessary steps to enforce the contract."
Though the The Times declined to comment on the exact numbers or individuals involved in the layoffs, in a memo to staff, obtained by The Huffington Post, executive editor Dean Baquet acknowledged the difficulty of the process:
Dear Colleagues,
We are coming to the end of a painful period for the newsroom. Today is the final day for people to rescind their buyout applications. We did not make the number we needed to deal with our newsroom budget cuts. So we are turning to a limited number of layoffs.
This process will end this week. We will be saying farewell to close and valued colleagues, which is difficult for all of us.
One point I'd like to make. For all of the difficulties of the past few weeks our report has never wavered. From coverage of the torture report, to the continued hard-hitting reporting about abuses at Rikers Island, The Times has shown its ability to persevere and thrive even in hard times.
I will say more in the next few days about moving forward.
Dean