LOS ANGELES: Sonja Sharp, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, speaks as a rally outside City Hall against ‘significant’ imminent layoffs at the newspaper during a one-day walkout, on Friday.—AFPLOS ANGELES: Unionised journalists at the Los Angeles Times walked off the job on Friday for the first time in the paper’s 142-year history, after management said it planned significant job cuts to help plug a gaping financial hole. Scores of employees gathered at a park in downtown Los Angeles to protest what they said were “obscene and unsustainable” contract changes being pushed on staff at the storied outlet in America’s second-biggest city. “The changes to our contract that management is trying to pressure us into accepting are obscene and unsustainable,” said Brian Contreras of the Los Angeles Times Guild. The action came the day after managers at the troubled paper said widening losses meant substantial job losses were unavoidable. “We need to reduce our operating budget going into this year and anticipate layoffs,” Times spokeswoman Hillary Manning said.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 21, 2024 03:44 UTC