In case you missed the “comment” left on the item below, retired Merc ad man Lou Alexander has furnished the following list of employees who were laid off today by the MediaNews-owned paper. He says 31 people were laid off and 15 voluntarily resigned since the layoffs were announced on June 6.
Included in the layoff
- Peter Allen
Stewart G. Applin
Jennifer Aquino
Morna Baird
Michele R. Chandler
Victor Chi
Barbara J. Egbert
Marilee S. Enge
Robin C. Evans
Kristen C. Folmar
Rodney A. Foo
Susanna L. Frohman
Constance L. Gove
Brian A. Griffin
Terri L. Hart
Brad Kava
Dikran Keraghosian
Anthony Lioce
Marian Liu
Thomas Moore
Raymond Moses
Kimberly Nauman
John Orr
Daniel Reed
Janice Rombeck
Colin Seymour
Khanh Weinberg
Nicole Wong
Sara Wykes
Steve Yvaska
Steve Zuckerman
Voluntary resignations since the layoffs were announced on June 6th:
- Tim Ball
Margaret Bethel
Roger Cohn
Dave Curtis
Dylan Hernandez
Jeff Hindenach
Elizabeth Howton
Wes Killingbeck
Will McCahill
Glenn Rabinowitz
Akii Ramsess
Elisabeth Rubinfein
Meryl Simon
Yomi Wrong
Oie Yeh
Lou Alexander’s list matches the list Robert Gammon of the East Bay Express posted this afternoon.
Is anonymous really Dean Singleton? Yes, the Guild is certainly part of the problem (as it was resistant to change and balked at innovation), but the reasons for these layoffs fall entirely at the feet of management … particularly a lackluster sales department that has let the second boom in the valley pass it by.
What hasn’t been reported about these layoffs is that the Guild has been completely ineffective in stopping them. In fact, you could argue that a union contract makes things worse because it imposes inflexible work rules and makes re-assignments impossible. To some, a reduction in pay is preferable to termination. Whether or not we have the Guild, we’re still going to have layoffs. We would be better off if we decertified the union and stopped paying dues. I, for one, wouldn’t mind what would amount to a pay increase.