The bloodletting at the Sacramento Bee is about to get much worse. According to an email sent out to Newspaper Guild members at the paper, a meeting this morning that was supposed to wrap up current bargaining got very ugly, very quickly. After the meeting, Guild representative Wendy Mejia posted the following email (written by reporter Jim Wasserman) to Guild members, printed below in its entirety:   Sacramento Bee employees should expect a serious wave of layoffs in early March, as well ... davidwattsbarton Brenna Hamilton comment-3673 2009-02-19T19:30:51Z 2009-02-19T19:30:51Z Voxpopuli & Exjourno: Agreed. The McClatchy greed is the ultimate problem and it's unfortunate that local residents end up screwed by losing their jobs and local news coverage. Outsourcing news coverage to Malaysia is just as bad as outsourcing tech support to India. Sad. What happened to American ethics? Brenna Hamilton 2009-02-19T19:30:51Z exjourno comment-3632 2009-02-17T21:46:24Z 2009-02-17T21:46:24Z mcclatchy finished the despoiling of the knight-ridder newspapers that k-r was in the process of doing to itself, and now mcclatchy has ruined itself through avarice and stupidity. it was easy for any of these clowns to make a buck when newspapers were a monopoly; now that it's a competitive business, these people at tribune and mcclatchy and gannett can be seen for the morons they really are. it would be one thing if this were the shoe business, but alas, we can't outsource reporting to malaysia or china; these people have also done serious damage to the public weal. exjourno 2009-02-17T21:46:24Z Geoff Samek comment-3623 2009-02-17T08:01:59Z 2009-02-17T08:01:59Z The WARN act (http://www.doleta.gov/layoff/pdf/EmployerWARN09_2003.pdf) states it is triggered when an employer: "Lays off 500 or more workers (not counting part-time workers) at a sin- gle site of employment during a 30-day period; or lays off 50-499 work- ers (not counting part-time workers), and these layoffs constitute 33% of the employer’s total active workforce (not counting part-time work- ers) at the single site of employment; " Geoff Samek 2009-02-17T08:01:59Z Ben Ilfeld comment-3577 2009-02-16T22:24:44Z 2009-02-16T22:24:44Z While I agree with you that there are plenty of other problems with the newspaper business, I don't appreciate the name calling. Ben Ilfeld 2009-02-16T22:24:44Z voxpopuli comment-3612 2009-02-16T21:33:35Z 2009-02-16T21:33:35Z That was driven the company into the ground. voxpopuli 2009-02-16T21:33:35Z voxpopuli comment-3611 2009-02-16T21:32:37Z 2009-02-16T21:32:37Z So at one point in time does McClatchy decide to hold the people who created this mess accountable? The people who bite off more than they can chew, who decided against investing in the future and used 25 percent profits to prop up the stock price, who have subsequently driven the company into the crowd. Good lord Gary Pruitt. Have you no decency? At long last sir, have you no decency? Please do the right thing now and resign. You and every publisher in America. voxpopuli 2009-02-16T21:32:37Z oregonisagreatplace comment-3610 2009-02-16T20:20:16Z 2009-02-16T20:20:16Z Doesn't WARN only kick in if more than 33 percent of the employees are going to be laid off? oregonisagreatplace 2009-02-16T20:20:16Z amylander comment-3609 2009-02-16T17:50:19Z 2009-02-16T17:50:19Z "Many people have stopped reading newspapers because of the inherent left-wing bias..." Yeah, that's it. That's why newspapers are dying. bbd123, you are a moron. amylander 2009-02-16T17:50:19Z amylander comment-3608 2009-02-16T17:49:57Z 2009-02-16T17:49:57Z . amylander 2009-02-16T17:49:57Z bbd123 comment-3606 2009-02-16T15:24:51Z 2009-02-16T15:24:51Z Many people have stopped reading newspapers because of the inherent left-wing bias that is constantly shown in many, many newspapers. People want to be educated about both sides of the issue, not preached to. As Roger Ailes said to journalists.."If there isn't anything in your piece that you disagree with, it's probably biased". I see many, many one-sided pieces of journalism. Why is that? As Bill O'Neil of Investors Business Daily speculates, they probably learned that bias in journalism schools. What this country needs is a national newspaper called "Both sides now", (remember Murrow?) and have a two-sided, completely unbiased newspaper that can educate us on the issues. bbd123 2009-02-16T15:24:51Z JDWilliams comment-3529 2009-02-14T02:26:04Z 2009-02-14T02:26:04Z David, they closed the cafeteria for the night crew several years ago. However they generously gave the night-shift employees 15 minutes more for their dinner breaks. Nice of them. JDWilliams 2009-02-14T02:26:04Z David Watts Barton comment-3545 2009-02-14T00:17:42Z 2009-02-14T00:17:42Z On a smaller but telling scale, one Bee employee just told me that today was the last day for the Bee cafeteria, which has been in operation for the better half of a century, I'm told. David Watts Barton 2009-02-14T00:17:42Z gnus2me comment-3544 2009-02-13T23:22:48Z 2009-02-13T23:22:48Z McClatchy is just joining Gannett and Lee and the Chicago Tribune in dying from the "bigger is better" syndrome and the bogus "drive them to the Web," where not enough people have learned how to make money. As the giants gut their papers and kill off the little ones, true entrepreneurs and real news folks will fill the breach. Already happening in Wisconsin; just a matter of time. gnus2me 2009-02-13T23:22:48Z Brenna Hamilton comment-3541 2009-02-13T21:52:09Z 2009-02-13T21:52:09Z Media consolidation is only a good idea if you can afford it, which McClatchy could not. They immediately had to sell of The Minneapolis Star to cover the billion dollar buy. Bad, bad, bad idea.... Like evey other "evil-doer" in the circle of corporate CEO Mephistoles, Pruitt is guilty as charged and unfortunately The Bee's employees pay the ultimate price. This makes McClatchy no different than AIG or the endless list of companies who's greed has almost destroyed our economy and the spirit of America's working force. We will see them in hell for sure, and it is sad that this is going on in our own backyard. I hope to read another piece on Mr. Pruitt's poor business decisions here on Sac Press, 'cuz you know The Bee ain't gonna cover that. (hint, hint Colleen!!) Brenna Hamilton 2009-02-13T21:52:09Z CB4 comment-3540 2009-02-13T20:44:43Z 2009-02-13T20:44:43Z At least the Washington bureau can be construed as a legitimate news expense that leads to an actual product. When I got the ax from one of its papers last year, the company was still pressing forward with a multimillion-dollar "upgrade" to CCI NewsGate, an impossible-to-use computer system that purported to meld our print and online operations but only resulted in migraines and an untold loss of productivity. But I'm sure none of this will stop Gary Pruitt, the CEO, from giving himself another million-dollar bonus. CB4 2009-02-13T20:44:43Z dcblab comment-3499 2009-02-13T20:35:01Z 2009-02-13T20:35:01Z The Washington Burea isn't do-nothing. Some of the best reporting in the last 8 years came from those people. The space here is far from luxury. It may be a renovated building, but it's actually cheaper and less prestigious than it was before the K-R buy. As people leave, like top editor David Westphal, they aren't replaced. Perhaps more McClatchy papers should run the material and they'd appreciate them more. Everyone here is beyond grateful they still have a job. dcblab 2009-02-13T20:35:01Z edward comment-3523 2009-02-13T19:09:58Z 2009-02-13T19:09:58Z What makes this even more devastating is that McClatchy refuses to cut back on the do-nothing Washington bureau. Not only has it been held immune from previous layoffs, but the bureau spends money on luxury flag-waving office space it doesn't need, and expenses of unpublicized and off the record parties like the secretive Gridion. We suffer. They party. edward 2009-02-13T19:09:58Z Robert Horowitz comment-3486 2009-02-13T06:41:55Z 2009-02-13T06:41:55Z What a mess. Agree with Rock Star, the big buyout was the straw that is now breaking that camel. Now the employees and the readers will pay. I have to say that, overall, I like the new design, and that i think the story selections are a lot better than they used to be, even if the editorial hole is a bit smaller. Sadly, this improvement probably is not sustainable, and certainly will not be enough to fix the problems caused by Pruitt and his corporate clowns. Media consolidation is a bad deal for everybody! Robert Horowitz 2009-02-13T06:41:55Z Brenna Hamilton comment-3438 2009-02-13T03:50:42Z 2009-02-13T03:50:42Z The big mistake they made was buying Knight-Ridder a few years back. They were never able to recover from that and then the financial crisis is a blow they just can't financially stand. It is unfortunate, I hate to see so many locals lose their jobs. Also worth nothing The Bee has a not-so-great reputation amongst advertisers for being difficult in terms of negotiating ad buys and running insertions. When I bought print from them, the billing was wrong every month. They consistently overcharged my clients and did not run at least one ad per week. Now that there are multiple media outlets in Sacramento (including Sac Press) competing for the same share of ad dollars, advertisers can choose to work with more cost-effective and less hassling media. Based on my experience, I can see how the decrease in advertising revenue happened and also contributed to The Bee's overall financial woes. Might I suggest Sac Press do a follow-up piece on their declining ad revenue's contribution to the layoffs?? Brenna Hamilton 2009-02-13T03:50:42Z Ryan Lundquist comment-3474 2009-02-13T00:00:19Z 2009-02-13T00:00:19Z Wow. It's sad to hear of so many job losses. Ryan Lundquist 2009-02-13T00:00:19Z