New York Times Reporters Face "Pension Freeze"
The New York Times Company has been negotiating with its newsroom employees since March 31, 2011. The company has offered a contract with a 35-hour work week, keeping the current medical plan intact. However, the company also wants to impose a "pension freeze"--which means no more payments into the current pension plan. Instead, the company would chip in money, equivalent to 3-5% of an employee's pay, into a 401K plan.
The Times reporters think this is outrageously unfair:
Some of my favorite parts:
- The first reporter, doing his darnedest to dress like a humanities professor, complete with bow tie
- The salaries of just $100,000 - $130,000 per year
- Yes, they're all wearing little "Guild" buttons
- The air of insufferable entitlement, especially from the older scribes
Times reporters finally encounter the Obama economy: hilarity ensues. Ricocheters, please tell me your favorite bits in the comments.
For me, the most laughable (and saddest) part comes at 4:15, where a staffer says that in a pension plan, "I at least have the safety of knowing that I have money coming in... at least, it's there for me." The union's line is that a 401K is much riskier because it depends on the market.
Do these people read newspapers? Have they ever heard of what happens to pension plans when companies go under, or when the stock market hiccups? Where do these people think pension plan money sits? In heaven?
Where have they been since the 1970s?
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May '10
Re: New York Times Reporters Face "Pension Freeze"
Strike. Please.
Apr '11
Re: New York Times Reporters Face "Pension Freeze"
Boo-friggin-hoo.
Sep '10
Re: New York Times Reporters Face "Pension Freeze"
I'm not laughing at their discomfort with a change in their retirement plan. It's hard to plan for the future. But imagine what this sounds like to someone who's been laid off from another newspaper. Some of these NYT writers are talking as if they might have to take a job in some horrible wasteland like LA or... or even the Midwest for pity's sake. Quel horreur. I mean, you can't even get good Chinese takeout out there, let alone decent Thai.
Edited on April 23, 2012 at 10:35pmJun '11
Re: New York Times Reporters Face "Pension Freeze"
I, for one, wholeheartedly stand with the New York Times' staff and their demands that management pay them the entire value of their pension that they are due. Start passing out your copies of the Daily Worker and everyone get into a drum circle because I will stand in solidarity as they milk every last cent out of the Times.