More layoffs are expected in the coming months at the Baltimore Sun, officials said Thursday.
The layoffs come on the heels of a recent Baltimore Sun Media Group reorganization that moved retail advertising sales to the group’s Patuxent Publishing Company sales force.
“We have notification from the director of labor, but we have not yet sat down to talk numbers or areas yet,” said Angie Kuhl, Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild unit vice chairwoman at the Sun. “It would include management and people that we represent — only layoffs, though, no buyouts — and that all areas are under review.
“The earliest [a layoff date] could be effective would be mid-December,” Kuhl noted, “because, for Guild-represented employees, there has to be a four-week notification period.”
Kuhl added that early indications from management suggested that the downsizing would come in the form of a series of layoffs.
“Baltimore Sun managers have made it clear that no corner of the newspaper is safe from further cuts,” Cet Parks, executive director of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, said in a news release.
The impending cuts comes in the wake of a July reduction in force that eliminated 100 Sun employees through a combination of buyouts and layoffs and an earlier downsizing that cut 45 from the company’s payroll. The 400-member union at the Sun has been reduced by 50 percent since the paper was sold to Chicago-based Tribune Co. in 2000, Parks said.
Kuhl also told The Examiner that the sales force reorganization — possibly a violation of the Guild’s contract with the company — should be implemented by year-end and will affect 20 unionized sales personnel. Kuhl said that they would have the option of joining the new sales force or being reassigned.
“They hope to have all local retail advertising handled by a group they’re calling ‘targeted print,’ ” she said, “who would be Patuxent employees, some working out of virtual offices.
Kuhl didn’t think the move was a ploy to eliminate those unwilling to transfer, noting that such actions are contrary to contract.
Sun spokeswoman Judy Berman could not be reached for comment.
