Lifetime job guarantees?
Efforts to save The Boston Globe newspaper appear to have come down to this question: Should any employee have a lifetime job guarantee?
At The Globe, about 470 employees who belong to six unions, including about 190 represented by the largest of the unions, the Boston Newspaper Guild, have lifetime job guarantees. They can be fired for cause. Representatives of two of the unions, but not the Guild, said early Monday they had reached agreeement with the company. The Guild president called elimination of lifetime guarantees a “non-starter.”
The New York Times, which has troubles of its own, is the parent company of The Globe. It has threatened to close the Boston newspaper unless unions agree to $20 million in concessions, half to come from the newsroom employees’ union. The deadline for a deal fell over the weekend, but talks continued into Monday. Times’ negotiators were prepared to file the 60-day notice that The Globe is being closed.
The Globe lost $50 million last year and is projected to lose $85 million in 2009.
My view is that nobody should have lifetime job guarantees or near equivalents. Not teachers. Not professors. Not bureaucrats. And not reporters and editors. Federal protections against age, race, gender and other forms of discrimination are sufficient to discourage employers, like The Globe, from singling out older employees, as some staffers there fear, because of their higher salaries.
Employers simply have to be able to react quickly and appropriately to the threats that exist, whether from new technology, changing tastes, more efficient competitors or from whatever source. In trying to survive, they should be able, without discriminating unlawfully, to pick the best, most adaptable and most productive employees. Otherwise, as with The Globe, everybody’s job could go down the tube.
Besides, I’ve never thought that reporters who were members of unions could be fair-minded in covering unions.
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68 comments Add your comment
Jim Jr
May 4th, 2009
7:59 am
** 60 ! **
Thanks W. you made it all possible.
Churchill's MOM
May 4th, 2009
8:29 am
These little men hate a Real Woman..
In the latest instance of a high-profile GOP member taking a passing swipe at the party’s 2008 vice-presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Governor and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney jokingly dismissed Sarah Palin’s inclusion on Time’s list of influential people in an interview broadcast Sunday.
He asked, was “the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people?”
Romney, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” was replying to a question from moderator John King on whether Time’s inclusion of Palin and talk show host Rush Limbaugh on their list of “The World’s Most Influential People” was good or bad for the Republican Party.
Romney, who has not ruled out another White House bid, said he wanted more influential Republicans on the list before adding pointedly: “I think there are a lot more influential Republicans than that would suggest.”
“But was that the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people?” he continued. “I’m not sure. If it’s the most beautiful, I understand. We’re not real cute.”
Asked about Romney’s comment, Palin didn’t respond to the reference to her appearance.
“I think there are 100 influential Republicans alone who have tremendous ideas and I hope that we can all work together to accomplish what we believe is best for America,” Palin said through a spokeswoman.
Romney, who was appearing with House Minority Whip Eric Cantor as part of a party re-launch the two are organizing with other prominent Republicans under the banner of the National Council for a New America, was laughing and smiling as he said it. His spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, called it only “a self-deprecating joke as to why there weren’t more Republicans on the list.”
But Romney’s quip reflects the deep unease among many in the GOP establishment about the continued high-profile of Limbaugh and especially Palin. There is almost a sense of exasperation among many party elites over the media coverage the two polarizing figures get – attention which, in Palin’s case, is widely seen as a product largely of her good looks and tabloid-fodder family troubles.
“She’s bigger in the media than in reality,” lamented GOP consultant Mike Murphy, a longtime friend and adviser to John McCain.
“Palin,” he said, “is the only Republican politician right now who is interesting, a little different, connected to the last campaign and related to an occasional story in the National Enquirer.”
Another GOP strategist carped, “The media is still obsessed with the Tina Fey impersonations and intra-campaign drama.”
Romney’s comments were striking because such grumbling is rarely expressed in public by high-ranking Republicans. Instead, GOP officials typically strive to ignore Palin, routinely leaving her off lists of the party’s rising stars even though she still retains a significant following among grassroots conservatives and may run for president in 2012.
The euphemistic mantra is that the party has to rebuild based on policy solutions – not the “personalities” the media insists on focusing their attention on.
Responding to King’s question first, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said “there are some who like to make it all about personalities, but it’s about ideas.”
Former Gov. Jeb Bush, who is also playing a prominent role in the Council, similarly said to POLITICO Saturday after the group’s launch in Arlington, Va., that the group hopes “to make the next election about ideas and not about personalities.”
Bush, while not responding to a Palin question, expressed frustration at the press wanting to cover the who’s-up-who’s-down political horserace, rather than policy.
Palin was initially not included on the Council because she didn’t respond to requests, but Sen. John McCain said in a conference call with reporters that he hoped she would be involved with the group.
“They would rather just ignore Palin,” said Murphy of the GOP mainstream, “but the media won’t let them.”
************Handel 2010********PALIN MCCAIN 2012******************
Jefferson
May 4th, 2009
8:44 am
Wrong Topic.
But,
White women voted against Palin, why are they gonna change?
Still Munchin the Carpet
May 4th, 2009
8:54 am
“Besides, I’ve never thought that reporters who were members of unions could be fair-minded in covering unions.”
Can “journalists” who are reflexively anti-union be fair-minded in covering labor issues?
Can a car-worshiping road lover be fair-minded in covering mass transit issues?
Can a reactionary troglodyte like Wooten be fair-minded in his comments about a Democratic President?
Redneck Convert
May 4th, 2009
8:55 am
Well, these unions and their do-good supporters need to go down big-time. If it wasn’t for them little Sonny Zell George would be able to get a job and help support the fambly. And people wouldn’t be kept from working more than 40 hrs a week without forcing a boss to pay a bigger wage rate. Heck, the whole fambly could go to work at the same place. Instead of wasting their time in school or on vacation or maybe using off hours to get into a bunch of trouble.
So no guaranteed jobs for anybody. Fire anybody that even mentions the word union. People got a right to loose their jobs just anytime a boss feels like it. We won’t never have Free Innerprize if union people get to say they can’t be fired. Firing is as American as Ford. If you ain’t been fired 10 or 12 times you must work for the guvmint and be worthless.
findog
May 4th, 2009
9:04 am
Dear Jim,
You miss the point. I have a lifetime job guarantee. I am guaranteed to need a job for my whole lifetime. Unless, of course I hit the lottery, then I can take a couple of years off…
Chris Broe
May 4th, 2009
9:09 am
Blog Soup: Wooten will take as many fellow journalists down with him as he possibly can. Jim Galloway continues to break records with nearly 700 comments for his secession piece. Should Georgia secede from the Union? The State of Georgia did secede once……………Once.
Bob Barr misuses a Walter Mitty metaphor with a piece on Joe Biden, and none of his rocket scientist trolls caught it. (I love it). View from the Cop is stuck in reverse. This real life cop has gold in his hands with prosecutable human behavior and all he wants to do is hack jokes. Stick to the blotter, Clyde.
Jan Bookman has gone from coddling trolls to coddling Gitmos over at his chicken-choked chatroom from hell.
Jklol
@@
May 4th, 2009
9:10 am
Say it ain’t so, Jim!
The NYT’s “rash” of liberal ideology only runs skin deep?
It comes as no surprise to me.
Road Scholar
May 4th, 2009
9:11 am
Define “just cause”. If a person’s work is substandard or no longer needed, then Adios. Now , they do need to try to retrain the worker to fill other opennings, if available, but if they can’t do their job, why should they be kept on the payroll?
The unions brought us many good results (benefits, healthcare, better working conditions, paid vacation days,5 day work week,…) But they have also become too powerful for their own livelyhood. Also remember that there are two signatures on the contracts…one for management.
...and
May 4th, 2009
9:18 am
Chris Broe directs blog traffic for the AJC.
Chris Broe
May 4th, 2009
9:21 am
“My view is that nobody should have lifetime job guarantees or near equivalents.”
If there ever was a more convincing arguments for the death tax, I haven’t read it.
Mac
May 4th, 2009
9:22 am
“Besides, I’ve never thought that reporters who were members of unions could be fair-minded in covering unions.”
Then you’ve never respected the people in your own business news department who shop in grocery stores and retailers? You’ve never respected any AJC education reporters, because their children went to school?
Like your readers, you don’t get that journalism requires a high degree of dedication, ethics and commitment to fairness … something you apparently believe is beyond the capacity of humans to achieve. Nice.
GOP is gone
May 4th, 2009
9:22 am
Geez, Churchill’s Mom, I am beginning to think you are a closet Lesbian, not that there’s anything wrong with that:)
Chris Broe
May 4th, 2009
9:29 am
Movie Review; Kate Hudson double header. “Bride Wars” and “My best friends girl”.
Bride Wars coulda been a masterpiece. Give me one hour with that script, and you’ve got a comedy classic. It was right there in front of them and they didn’t see it. Otherwise, it’s a passable get-your-ann hathaway-close-up fix.
Now, on to “My best friends girl”. I wont ruin it by reviewing it. Rent it. All I’m saying.
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 4th, 2009
9:53 am
In my view The Globe signed a contract so they should live up to it.
Billy Bob the anti-THUG
May 4th, 2009
9:54 am
Simple rule of thumb as an investor:
Never invest in a company which has labor represented by unions
Big Bucks GOP
May 4th, 2009
10:15 am
The American International Group is close to selling its Japanese
headquarters for about $1 billion and the expected buyer is a Japanese
insurance company, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Big Bucks GOP
May 4th, 2009
10:16 am
Warren E. Buffett criticized the government’s stress tests of 19 large
banks on Sunday, saying the examinations failed to assess the
industry’s health properly and that Wells Fargo will prosper no matter
what the results show.
Big Bucks GOP
May 4th, 2009
10:18 am
Separately, Berkshire’s vice chairman, Charlie Munger, said Friday that
he supported an outright ban of credit default swaps to prevent
speculators from profiting on the failure of companies
Big Bucks GOP
May 4th, 2009
10:18 am
Chrysler’s bankruptcy marks the biggest collapse of any company owned
by a private equity firm, Bloomberg News reported, citing data from
PitchBook Data.
Big Bucks GOP
May 4th, 2009
10:19 am
Mary L. Schapiro, the chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange
Commission, wants the authority to regulate what hedge funds can buy
and how much money they can borrow to maximize their bets, saying
registration falls short of what is needed to police the $1.33 trillion
industry.
Big Bucks GOP
May 4th, 2009
10:20 am
Two Madoff victims and a hedge fund manager are among the sellers at
this spring’s important auctions of Impressionist, modern and
contemporary art.
Big Bucks GOP
May 4th, 2009
10:21 am
The economy declined at a brisk pace in the first quarter and it is
still shrinking — yet the stock market climbed last week, and in April
it posted its best monthly returns since 1991.
Big Bucks GOP
May 4th, 2009
10:22 am
Stanley Chais, an investment manager and prominent Los Angeles
philanthropist, was sued on Friday by a court-appointed trustee who
accused him of getting such outsized returns on his family’s accounts
with Bernard L. Madoff that he “knew or should have known” that his
family was participating in an illegal Ponzi scheme.
Big Bucks GOP
May 4th, 2009
10:23 am
Chesapeake Energy paid $12.1 million to buy a collection of historical
maps from its chairman and chief executive, Aubrey K. McClendon,
according to the company’s proxy.
booger
May 4th, 2009
10:27 am
Mac,
I assume you are being sarcastic about journalist being dedicated, ethical and fair. Nobody is that naive.
Diogenes
May 4th, 2009
10:27 am
Good morning, Jim,
You asked the question “Should any employee have a lifetime job guarantee?” No. But they should have adequate medical coverage while they search for another job in a rapidly shrinking industry or until they start cooking hash browns at Waffle House. In fact, it would make more sense for the government rather than the employer to provide health insurance in the first place.
booger
May 4th, 2009
10:32 am
Hillbilly, How exactly does a company live up to a lifetime employment promise when they shut their doors.
...and
May 4th, 2009
10:37 am
when the government coffers run dry (which they already have) who then will provide healthcare?
Mac
May 4th, 2009
10:44 am
No booger, I ain’t. I know that you are that stoopid.
Copyleft
May 4th, 2009
11:06 am
No, lifetime employment shouldn’t be guaranteed… but pensions should.
Remember pensions? Those great savings accounts we all used to have, before 401(k)s took over and threw all our money onto the roulette wheel? Yeah. Those.
Algonquin J. Calhoun
May 4th, 2009
11:11 am
We know you hate unions but the unions have been the source of protection for working people and they will continue to be. As Woody Guthrie said, “there’s strength in a union.”
Chris Broe
May 4th, 2009
11:25 am
Point of order. woody allen said that he wouldn’t want to belong to a union that would have him as a member.
RealityKing
May 4th, 2009
11:40 am
“something you apparently believe is beyond the capacity of humans to achieve.”
No Mac, not all humans, just the ones that consider themselves “progressive”. Something about the kool-aid. Much like the NYTimes and BGlobe reporters. Good riddence to bad journalism..
RealityKing
May 4th, 2009
11:42 am
The governments job is to guarantee our saftey, not livileyhoods..
RealityKing
May 4th, 2009
11:43 am
Besides, who needs the BGlobe, NYTimes or AJC when Obama has his own website? Might as well go straight to the horse for today’s state news..
Mac
May 4th, 2009
11:58 am
Judges hear all sides of an issue and render a decision, impartial and based on the law.
Journalists present all sides of an issue and draw no conclusion. That’s left up to the readers, and when they draw a conclusion they don’t like, they blame it on the journalist. Nice.
booger
May 4th, 2009
12:08 pm
Since when do journalist present all sides of an issue. They have become advocates and cheerleaders for anything liberal and naysayers for anything conservative. When’s the last time Bookman expressed a doubt over anything Obama has done. When’s the last time you saw anything positive about conservatives.
Chris Broe
May 4th, 2009
12:14 pm
Realityking brings up a great topic for debate. What is the role of any government? Safety? Order? To perpetuate itself at all costs? We pledge allegiance to a flag. We hide behind a flag. We wave a flag. We rally around a flag.
AND we pledge allegiance to the republic for which it stands. So we revere both our flag and the republic. (4 which the flag stands 4).
What does that mean? A Government then, necessarily must have a flag. so the purpose of a government is to chose a flag and to provide the republic for which it stands.
Republic means that the citizens hold the power by vote. So the citizens decide what the government is and is not. Therefore, the 32 percent of Georgians who would secede from the government are in rebellion against what the citizens of our republic have decided what our government should be.
How many people did the Romans crucify to stop rebellions? Some estimate 3 million. 32% of Georiga is about three million.
Veni Vidi Vici
*
*
*
(actually Julius Caesar said, “Veni Vidi Venti”, which means, “I came, I saw, I had a Latte”. Yes, there was a Starbucks in Gaul.)
Chris Broe
May 4th, 2009
12:17 pm
And now, it’s time for “Poet’s corner”.
Two people face to face make a vase. If you face the devil, you make a vice. If you face God, you make a nice.
Sometimes, It’s nice to make a vice. God doesn’t like people making vice out of a nice. The devil doesn’t like people making nice out of a vice.
What can two people do, face to face, but make a vice nice?
Note: This poem was submitted to the Pulitzer Committee but unfortunately the janitor called in sick that day, and there was a shortage of bathroom tissue, and, you guessed it……..
RetLTC
May 4th, 2009
12:22 pm
Sarah Palin is no more to the Republican Party than 2012’s sacrificial lamb much as Bob Dole was in 96. After the 2012 election it will be a lot more convenient for her to be sent by the Republican power structure back to exile in Alaska.
Mac
May 4th, 2009
12:38 pm
Oh, I see booger, you are talking about pundits, not journalists. I’ve seen all sides presented by journalists pretty much every day of my life. They are two different animals. Bookman and Wooten stopped being journalists years ago. They are paid to give their liberal and conservative opinions.
Ga Values
May 4th, 2009
12:38 pm
Jim, read Bob Barr’s article. This is what you need to be writing. Dusty was on NPR last night, Dusty’s BBQ that is.
Chris Broe
May 4th, 2009
12:53 pm
Bob Barr belongs behind bars, (bobbin’)
Peter
May 4th, 2009
12:58 pm
Hey Jim………Should Social Security be guaranteed ? Or should we all get ripped off by the government officials that want to steal the money ?
Churchill's MOM
May 4th, 2009
1:15 pm
GOP is gone 9:22 am
My husband will tell you how wrong you are. You should try a real woman(I am not available, strictly a married woman) rather than 1 of those boys.
Poultry
May 4th, 2009
1:30 pm
Why shouldn’t people produce newspaper content from within a bubble of isolation from the pressures and fears of more hardworking Americans? Don’t newspaper folk do that already?
I Report, You Bedwet
May 4th, 2009
1:35 pm
The Boston Globe is just like all the other DNC lib media outlets: of liberals, by liberals, and for liberals. Let the free market determine their survival. Government meddling in private ventures has NEVER helped anything long term. Yeah it helped Chrysler and the investors who were laughably offered of $.30 on the dollar, didn’t it? THIRTY CENTS ON THE DOLLAR! Sounds about as great a deal as social security, doesn’t it? Now the unions own the majority of the company and the federal government essentially will run the company now. Good luck libs with building your little Utopian eco-boxes and selling them. Can’t wait to see how government-run “news” papers run things. STATE RUN “news” media. Can you imagine? Don’t think the Democrats aren’t drooling over those prospects.
On the subject of droolers, Senator “I am staying a Republican” Specter pretty much sums up his idiocy and why he belongs to the Democrats. This idiot is saying that Jack Kemp would still be alive if the GOP were more “moderate.” That is straight from left wing liberal emotion-driven mindlessness. The Republican party has NOT gone further right. You “moderates” out there have shifted center-left. That’s NOT the Republican party any more than your asinine votes for that waste of taxpayer money in a so-called “stimulus” bill that you idiots didn’t even READ most of.
“Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, said part of the reason that he left the Republican Party last week was disillusionment with its health-care priorities, and suggested that had the Republicans taken a more moderate track, Jack Kemp may have won his battle with cancer.”
This idiot, and so many idiots like him, believe that what works reasonably fine – but certainly not perfect – for 85% of this nation’s people who HAVE health care insurance should be disbanded, torn down, and rebuilt under government authority. In short, the liberals hate private health care insurance – liberals actually hate private ANYTHING (except the bedroom of course). Now for you mathematically challenged Obamabots out there who are questioning the math, about 45 million people have no health insurance in America. Do the percentage math on 300 million. Do you moonbats love dealing with the DMV tag offices? Just wait until your health is run by the same government employee mentality. Good luck suing the doc because he sawed off the wrong foot!
But back to the Globe, good riddance. Plenty more should fall right in line behind it who left objective reporting decades ago and became a drooling mouthpiece for the left, like the NYT and LA Times.
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 4th, 2009
2:09 pm
Booger @10:32
If I sign a contract, I’m expected to live up to it. If I don’t my assets will be seized. I can’t buy a house from you and several years from now say, “well sorry, I can’t afford to pay you anymore”. I’m still liable for what I signed for.
Copyleft @11:06
Few people realize that the next ticking time bomb in this country is unfunded pensions. Unfunded penions in the private sector in this country far outstrips the resources of the federal agency that is set up to cover the ones that go under
JLK
May 4th, 2009
2:10 pm
Chris Broe, you SO need to call me. **smooch!**