Cleveland Plain Dealer Busts Union, Moves Forward With Plan to Cut 29 Local Journalism Jobs

Plain Dealer editor George Rodrigue has announced that the paper will lay off nearly half of its unionized workforce in early 2019 as it transitions to a “centralized production hub.”

The announcement came only days after the Plain Dealer News Guild, fighting for its survival, presented a counter-proposal to the outsourcing plan that Advance Publications reportedly began to explore in October. Bargaining has been ongoing this month.

Rodrigue sent a letter to local news editors and published it on Cleveland.com Dec. 27 before employees themselves learned that their jobs would soon be gone.

Rodrigue has characterized the decision as an effort to preserve quality local coverage while creating efficiencies. Most of the employees and local observers, however, view the decision as a continuation of Advance’s union-busting efforts, which began with the strategic schism of the print (union, Plain Dealer) and digital (non-union, Cleveland.com) newsrooms.

Read more: https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2018/12/28/plain-dealer-busts-union-moves-forward-with-plan-to-cut-29-local-journalism-jobs