Results tagged “layoffs”

There are some staff changes happening at the Times this week. Tina Daunt, who wrote at the paper for 20 years, is among an unknown number of people laid off. Last night, she wrote on her blog:

No details are publicly available until the plan is ratified by union members, but today the City Council took action that reverses this week's earlier decision to cut nearly 1,000 jobs and institute 26 days of furloughs that would help the city fight a $405 million budget shortfall. Instead, the Coalition of L.A. City Unions gave up $78 million in "hard concessions" and will have to contribute an extra .37 percent of paychecks towards the city's pension fund, which will cover the early retirement of some 2,400 employees, according to the LA Times. Although 22,000 employees have membership in this union, other unions may still experience layoffs and furloughs, which could prompt lawsuits.

It's a few minutes shy of 10:30 a.m. and the Los Angeles City Council is in session, however behind closed doors as councilmembers decide on a labor deal. Earlier this week, the council voted to cut close to 1,000 jobs and institute 26 furlough days, but only as a back-up plan if talks didn't go through by the end of the month. The city faces a $405-million deficit and an earlier plan to let thousands of employees retire five years early was found to only save the city a minimal amount of money. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he refused to let any plan go forward that would compromise public safety jobs. A panel this week worked to find a way to reverse this week's decision, which may be voted upon later today.

Although the L.A. City Council yesterday voted to move forward with cutting close to 1,000 jobs, many through layoffs, and making employees take 26 days off through furloughs, they still plan to negotiate a deal with a union to avoid such action. The council called their move a safety net, buying time so they can find a way to avoid the job cuts and furloughs while still eliminating a $405-million budget deficit.

After long deliberations in public and behind closed doors, the Los Angeles City Council today voted to go ahead with a budget-saving plan to eliminate 926 positions and 26 furlough days for civilian employees. However, many members see the decision as a temporary move, which gets the ball rolling on the layoff and furlough process, but buys time to make alternative arrangement to save jobs. The vote “is a safety net, in the event that we aren’t able to come up with an agreement,” Councilman Richard Alarcon was quoted saying in the Los Angeles Times. An agreement with unions must be made before September 28th, when furloughs will begin. Yesterday, the city of Long Beach, LA County's 2nd largest city, voted to eliminate hundreds of jobs to balance the budget.

As the corridors of city hall in Los Angeles are abuzz with the pending outcome of budget talks, which could lead to nearly 1,000 layoffs, Long Beach councilmembers yesterday approved their $2.5 billion budget. "Citywide, 297 positions will be eliminated and up to 150 workers laid off under the new budget plan, which is a decrease from the original budget proposal that would have eliminated 312 positions and laid off 161," reported the Press-Telegram of the $20.3 million in cuts. "About 30 police officers may still get laid off, but the number of firefighters on duty at any given time will now drop from 137 to 133, instead of to 130."

Facing a $405-million budget deficit, Mayor Villaraigosa earlier this summer asked city employees to share the sacrifice. A major deal was struck with civilian union employees by letting 2,400 employees retire early within five years. That plan needed City Council approval and with months of no action, things have changed.

During yesterday's California State University system's special Board of Trustees meeting, Chancellor Charles B. Reed said he will seek approval for "an additional student fee hike of 15% to 20% for this fall, and enrollment reductions of 32,000 students in the year to follow," reports the LA Times.

Students at Liechty Middle School engaged in a silent protest during their graduation ceremony last week and it wound up costing them their diplomas. "The students turned their backs on graduation speaker Monica Garcia, LAUSD Board President, to express their displeasure to teacher layoffs and cutbacks," press materials explain.

Thousands of teachers are still going to lose their job at the end of the month, but at least 500 of them are saved. "Many of the teachers who were at risk of losing their jobs, as well as their supporters, camped out overnight at LAUSD headquarters in downtown L.A. to protest the proposed layoffs," says CBS2, who received the layoff information from LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines exclusively.

Today marks Day 8 of the Hunger Strike initiated by several LAUSD teachers and community members. In addition to the hunger strike, protesters have held, and will continue to hold, "camp-out" events, bringing supporters and community members together to "celebrate and protect the culture" of area schools; one such evening is planned for tomorrow from 6-8:30 p.m. at Miguel Contreras Learning Center.

Like last Friday, a number of students from Santee and Lincoln High Schools protested budget cuts and teacher layoffs this morning. They marched to the LAUSD headquarters in downtown where Superintendent Ray Cortines spoke to them, according to Cuts Hurt Kids on Twitter. Last week, students and teachers protested ending with a around 40 educators in jail.

In a closed-session meeting yesterday, the LAUSD Board of Education voted unanimously to file suit against the teachers' union, UTLA, charging that their planned May 15th "work stoppage" is "unfair labor practice," reports abc7.

It was as close to a split as a panel of 7 can get: In a 4-3 vote, the LAUSD Board of Education voted late yesterday afternoon to approve layoffs that will affect thousands of teachers and other district staff.

Following a morning meeting held between Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Board of Education members Monica Garcia and Yolie Flores-Aguilar, and parents and teachers, the LAUSD has just announced they will "drop a proposal to lay off as many as 1,900 permanent teachers," LA Now reports. The move spares permanent teachers at elementary schools, who will still have to deal with increased class sizes and other shortfalls in support and services. Although the news is encouraging for some, teachers at middle and high schools in the district still face layoffs, as do thousands of other employees. The issue of the budget cuts and layoffs will be on the agenda for tomorrow's regularly scheduled Board meeting, but following today's meeting and announcement, "Supt. Ramon C. Cortines and school board president Monica Garcia insisted that they will continue to work to minimize the number of layoffs, even if the board approves them as a precaution."

Under pressure from United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing educators working in the LAUSD, the Board of Education agreed on Tuesday during their regular meeting to postpone voting on proposed layoffs. The Board, in a gesture meant to show alignment with Superintendent Ramon Cortines, decided to pursue meetings and discussions of alternatives with bargaining units, and will bring the motion to the table once more on April 14th.

The Getty has a nearly-three-decades-long reputation of being an unabashedly wealthy organization with lofty cultural ideals. Launched in 1982, the Trust was put in place to assure late tycoon J. Paul Getty's vision of bringing art to the people and spreading knowledge. Despite some growing pains (and what billionaire family doesn't have a little scandal now and then?) the Getty, predominantly associated with their two local museums, has remained a stalwart figure in the local and international art scene. But the Getty isn't impervious to the fickle fate of finances, and last December, the Trust revealed that their endowment monies had shrunk by 25%.

If you've seen random bits of pink clad people today, here's what's going on.

LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines is looking for ways to help the beleaguered district function on a budget deficit and in the wake of more state-level cuts. To do so, he is considering laying off "a great many employees," according to abc7.com. "The first wave of possible cuts will likely be made among non-teaching personnel. They include management and staff throughout the district." If approved by the school board by vote on March 10, the pink slips will go out shortly after, although not all those employees notified will immediately lose their jobs. Cortines insists that instruction will continue in the classrooms and that he is focused on doing what he can to minimize how these layoffs will affect the kids.

That's how many layoff warnings Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be sending off tomorrow morning to state employees, save for SEIU members. "In the absence of a budget, the governor has the responsibility to realize savings any way he can," Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said, per the SacBee. The budget standstill could be end if one Republican decides to side with Democrats. It's speculated that tonight's move by the Governor is to pressure Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, who was close to voting on the budget, but backed out on Saturday. He represents a majority of said state workers in Sacramento county.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa yesterday told the Daily News editorial board that a large unseen number of layoffs are coming to city employees. "We can't continue to operate the way we have in the past," he said.

Job losses continue to make headlines in all parts of the country, including here in Los Angeles. While there is hope that 2009 will show fewer layoffs than 2008, employees of major corporations, and smaller businesses alike in California are still finding themselves out of work, and our unemployment rate is now 9.3%.

The U.S. economy is in the tank. We all know that. But what we didn’t know is that somewhere along the line it became the norm for companies to become Scrooge-like by issuing pink slips, layoff notices, or holding reorganizations, reshuffling, restructurings, downsizings, rightsizings, RIFs (reduction in force, dontcha know) – the week or two before the Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year’s holidays.

National Public Radio is cutting two daily shows and the majority of its Culver City-based NPR West staff as part of companywide layoffs and program cuts announced today.

If there's any silver lining to the cloudy days ahead wrought by Prop. 8, it's that bigotry so foul comes with a price too heavy for some of its chief proponents to bear. And I'm not talking about a couple missed meals at El Coyote--Focus On the Family itself, after forking over more than $500,000 to pass California's Prop. 8 gay marriage ban, announced yesterday that its budget shortfalls are forcing it to cut an estimated one fifth of its staff.

Sad news today for the local rock music reporting scene. Early last night, Kevin Bronson from the LA Times sent out an e-mail titled "Yeah, it's true." The body of the e-mail broke the news. "I'm history. My last day at the Times is Friday." He then linked to Kevin Roderick's post about the massive amounts of layoffs at the paper. Bronson was a huge asset to the Times and had a wonderful blog called Buzz Bands until it was folded into Soundboard. He wrote that the Airborne Toxic Event, The Deadly Syndrome, and Castledoor were three bands to watch in 2008. And he was right.

The state's budget woes may soon have a massive casualty list to its credit, culled from our already ailing school systems. Who's getting kicked out of school? Educators!

In the days following the launch of the WGA strike, workers from various departments on Warner Bros.' Burbank lot were issued mandatory Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN) notices, informing them that they could be subject to layoff after sixty days as a result of the scribes' strike.

Who made this weekend festival weekend? There are about a million different events going on around the city this weekend, so enjoy the fall weather and get out there! One strike against pirated movies: the MPAA is filing a lawsuit against internet video sharing sites cinematube.net and ssupload.com, claiming that these sites infringe upon the MPAA's copyright. Kiefer Sutherland could be facing up to 18 months of jail time for his drunk-driving arrest. Next...