2010 PayWatch Exposes Corporate Lobbying on Financial Reform

by James Parks

The nation’s biggest banks helped create the current financial crisis that required a $700 billion taxpayer bailout. In return, the banks cut back on lending to consumers and small businesses but paid out a record $145 billion in total compensation in 2009.

The 2010 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch, which launched today, shows the same Big Six banks—Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo—are spending millions of dollars lobbying on financial regulations, including limits on executive pay and risky actions like the ones that caused the current crisis.

In six case studies, PayWatch examines how the companies paid out big bucks to executives and lobbyists:

Citigroup received more than $45 billion in bailout funds—the largest bank bailout and employs nearly 50 lobbyists. Citigroup’s highest-paid executive, Institutional Clients Group CEO John Havens, received more than $11 million in 2009.

At Bank of America, Thomas Montag, the head of global banking and markets, collected $30 million last year. And Kenneth Lewis, who retired as CEO at the end of 2009, could collect as much as $83 million over his retirement. The bank has lobbied federal officials and lawmakers on derivatives, executive compensation, oversight of the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Today at noon EDT, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will host a live webcast to review the new data and outline plans to enact real financial regulatory reform and make Wall Street pay for job creation through a financial speculation tax. Click here for more information on the webcast.

The banks’ actions are one of the main causes of worker anger over the economy, Trumka told a press conference at the AFL-CIO headquarters this morning.

Our message this year to all these banking CEOs is that hard-working Americans will not be their ATMs. Working Americans are mad as hell and we won’t take it any more. Big Wall Street banks helped create this economic crisis and should pay to create the jobs they destroyed.

For example, Wells Fargo increased its lobbying expenses by 27 percent last year. CEO John Stumpf received more than $21 million and was the highest-paid financial industry CEO in 2009. Because banks who received bailout money were forbidden by law to give their top executives bonuses or incentive compensation, Wells Fargo boosted Stumpf’s base pay by more than a whopping 537 percent to $5.6 million in 2009.

The banking industry spent a total of some $50 million lobbying last year, and the Big Six banks spent nearly half of that, Trumka said.

The banking industry now has more lobbyists than there are Congress members in the U.S. House of Representatives. Banks also belong to trade associations such as the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that have been particularly active in lobbying against tighter financial regulations.

Karen Nussbaum, director of Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate, told reporters that her organization talks with some 1.5 million workers who are not union members.
The jobs crisis is personal. It’s in every community and every family.

It makes sense to families that banks have been unfettered and have run amok and it makes sense to restore regulations to hold banks in line, she said.

Although Congress is considering measures to rein in Wall Street, we need bolder action, Trumka said, calling for “real financial reform, which includes an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency and a financial speculation tax to make Wall Street pay for jobs.” You can take action and urge your representative and senators to vote for financial reform here on the PayWatch site.

PayWatch also provides opportunities for visitors to find out how you can have a say on executive pay at companies where you hold stock. The site also includes a list of the shareholder meetings for the Big Six banks. The site has a new updated database with key information on some 3,000 companies.

You also can compare your pay to that of your employer and join with Working America members in their campaign to tell Wall Street “I Am Not Your ATM.”

A chief executive officer of a Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 index company was paid, on average, $9.25 million in total compensation in 2009.[1] At the same time, millions of workers lost their jobs, their homes and their retirement savings in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Executive pay has taken center stage since the $700 billion government bailout of financial institutions. Americans expressed outrage as big banks helped create the financial crisis, took billions in taxpayer bailouts, paid out billions in pay and bonuses and are now lobbying on financial regulatory reform.

The case studies here focus on executive pay at six of the biggest banks that received government bailout funds and their multimillion-dollar lobbying efforts. Also in Executive PayWatch, you can find CEO compensation data for some of the country’s largest companies; learn how you, as a shareholder, can have your "Say-on-Pay"; and find out what you can do to ensure re-regulation of the financial system.

Bank of America Corp.Thomas Montag2009 Total Compensation: $29,930,431

JPMorgan Chase & Co.James Dimon2009 Total Compensation: $9,274,494

Citigroup Inc.John Havens2009 Total Compensation: $11,276,454

Morgan StanleyWalid Chammah2009 Total Compensation: $10,021,969

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.Lloyd Blankfein2009 Total Compensation: $9,862,657

Wells FargoJohn Stumpf2009 Total Compensation: $21,340,547

[1] AFL-CIO analysis of 292 companies in the S&P 500 Index. CEO pay data provided by salary.com.


Don't let banks kill financial reform.

Take Action Learn More

ANALYSIS - Tribune-creditor pact only delays legal battle

By Tom Hals - Reuters

WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) - A settlement with Tribune Co creditors aimed at ending the media company's bankruptcy, and possibly Chairman Sam Zell's liability, may have avoided a legal "World War III" but it sets up a nasty battle to confirm the plan.
The deal estimates Tribune's value at $6.1 billion and shaves off about 7.4 percent of that for senior bondholders, with the rest going to senior lenders.

Tribune, which publishes the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and other dailies and owns television and radio stations, has been in Chapter 11 protection since December 2008, after Zell took it private in a 2007 leveraged buyout.

The company said Thursday's settlement, which exonerates real estate mogul Zell and everyone else from responsibility for the disastrous buyout, will allow Tribune to "resolve these cases without the distraction, expense and delay of a protracted litigation."

The dynamics of the case suggests that is not likely, at least not yet.

"It sounds like bondholders are not part of the deal and if not, they are certainly likely to challenge the deal and challenge the plan at every opportunity they have," said Douglas Mintz of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in Washington.

One legal strategy will take aim at billions of dollars of claims by senior lenders that bondholders want disallowed, claims that stem from Zell's takeover in 2007.

The leveraged buyout that Zell has admitted was the "deal from hell" has stood as something of a poster child for the excesses of the credit bubble. It piled more than $10 billion in debt on a company in a struggling industry and bondholders have blamed the "virtually no money-down LBO" for their investment losses.

"Tribune has all the earmarks of an overleveraged collapse," said Stephen Selbst of Herrick, Feinstein in New York. "It happened at the height of LBO transactions and failed fairly soon after."

Junior bondholders want to pursue claims against lenders such as JPMorgan Chase & Co and the Tribune board which they blame for the LBO.

Those claims were being pursued by the creditors committee, which was seeking to disallow as much as $10 billion in senior loan debt in what one group fighting the committee warned would be a "the bankruptcy equivalent of World War III."

The committee agreed to drop those LBO-related claims as part of Thursday's settlement, and all potentially liable parties were granted releases from legal claims.

One lawyer noted there is a risk from granting releases that are too broad.

"It's not unusual to have at the end of a case in a plan releases that exonerate all people," said Stuart Hirshfield of the firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo. "Courts have been very leery about approving them and trustees have been attacking those."

TAINTED COMMITTEE

While support of the official committee would normally be a good sign of success for a settlement with a bankrupt company, Tribune's committee has an usual twist which bondholders have said taints it: the panel includes senior bank lenders.

Junior bondholders warned last year that "seven of the nine members of the official committee are economically motivated to reach a quick and rather easy plan settlement with a Zell-control management."

In contrast, junior bondholders are motivated to fight: Thursday's settlement proposes to wipe them out.

They certainly do not show signs of letting up.

Less than a day after the settlement was announced, the junior bondholders represented by Wilmington Trust Co and the law firm of Brown Rudnick, known for its aggressiveness, filed 208 pages in support of their request for an examiner to investigate the leveraged buyout.

The settlement does have the support of Centerbridge Capital Advisors, which owns 37 percent of a senior class of bonds.

Selbst said Centerbridge's support of the settlement will give the feeling of "the train leaving the station" and may encourage holdout senior bondholders to climb aboard.

Other major holders of the senior debt were not commenting on Friday.

The settlement will likely be incorporated into plan of reorganization, the battleground for the major fight.

If junior bondholders "feel they are getting short end of the stick they will push on every lever they have," said Mintz of the likely legal fight to come. "At a minimum, you try to get the debtor attention to try to extract a better recovery."

The case is In re Tribune Co, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 08-13141.

Reporting by Tom Hals; Editing by Richard Chang

(For more business news on Reuters Money visit www.reutersmoney.in)

Reuters Journalist Killed In Bangkok Protests

By Jason Szep

(Reuters) - Reuters television cameraman, Hiro Muramoto, was shot dead on Saturday during a violent clash between Thai troops and anti-government protesters in Bangkok that killed 12 people.

Hiro Muramoto, a 43-year-old Japanese national, was shot in the chest and arrived at Klang Hospital without a pulse, hospital Director Dr Pichaya Nakwatchara said. Muramoto, who had worked for Reuters in Tokyo for more than 15 years, was married with two children.

"I am dreadfully saddened to have lost our colleague Hiro Muramoto in the Bangkok clashes," said Reuters Editor-in-Chief David Schlesinger. "Journalism can be a terribly dangerous profession as those who try to tell the world the story thrust themselves in the center of the action. The entire Reuters family will mourn this tragedy

Muramoto had been covering fighting between troops and protesters in the Rajdumnoen Road area where soldiers opened fire with rubber bullets and tear gas, as well as live rounds into the air, in Bangkok's worst political violence in 18 years.

The hospital director said the bullet had exited his back. He did not know what kind of bullet it was.

An army spokesman said protesters were armed with guns and had been throwing petrol bombs and grenades at troops.

Twelve people, including three soldiers, were killed and more than 500 people wounded in the fighting near the Phan Fah bridge and Rajdumnoen Road in Bangkok's old quarter, a protest base near government buildings and the regional U.N. headquarters.

(Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by John Chalmers and Nick Macfie)

World death toll for journalists shoots up in 2009 despite safety calls

Source : International News Safety Institute (INSI)

More than 130 journalists and support staff died trying to cover the news in 2009 despite repeated international calls for action to constrain the bloodshed.

The worldwide total of 132 dead in 35 countries, recorded by the International News Safety Institute, was one of the worst yearly tolls on record.

It was boosted by the slaying of 31 people in a politically-motivated ambush in the Philippines on 23 November, the bloodiest single incident ever recorded for the news media. That made the Philippines by far the most dangerous country in the world for the news media with a total of 37 dead over the year

More than 400 news media have now died trying to cover the story since the end of 2006 when the UN Security Council unanimously passed landmark Resolution 1738 http://tinyurl.com/yclyba2 which demanded greater safety for journalists in conflict areas and called for an end to impunity for their killers. Similar appeals have been made time and again by UNESCO and the Council of Europe.

By far the greatest number of those who died last year -- 98 -- were targeted, murdered because of their work. Over the past decade fewer than 8 out of 10 of the killers of journalists have been brought to justice.

As always, the great majority of the casualties in 2009 were not international war correspondents but local journalists working in their own countries, mostly in peacetime, covering dangerous stories such as high level crime and corruption.

"Journalists continue to die because they dare to shine a light on the darkest corners of societies," said INSI Director Rodney Pinder. "This is the shocking price we pay for our news.

"And this unacceptable situation will persist as long as killers of journalists walk free.

"Again, we call on the United Nations to help enforce Resolution 1738 and on all member states to respect its provisions and prosecute the murderers. http://tinyurl.com/ya68s6f

"Free societies everywhere are undermined whenever a journalist is slain because of their work."

After murder, the biggest cause of death for news personnel in 2009 was accidents with 23 fatalities, the INSI figures show. Eleven news men and women died in "crossfire" incidents such as random shootings, roadside bombings and aerial bombardment which did not appear to be directed specifically at them.

After the Philippines, the bloodiest countries in 2009 were Mexico with 11 killed, Somalia and Russia with 9 each, Pakistan with 8 and Iraq with 5.

"The one encouraging statistic over the past couple of years has been the dramatic fall in killings in Iraq," Pinder said.

"It was the most dangerous country in the world for the news media for five years after the US-led invasion in 2003, but journalists are now benefiting from a general reduction in violence there. This demonstrates that even the direst situations can improve."

Nevertheless, INSI now counts 257 news media dead in the Iraq conflict -- the bloodiest for news men and women in modern times.

The year had barely begun when the first journalist fell. Radio Shabelle reporter Hassan Mayow Hassan was gunned down by a member of a pro-government militia in Somalia. Hassan was covering clashes between Islamist militants and armed groups supporting the federal transitional government when a militiaman confronted him.

Hassan identified himself as a journalist and the militiaman shot him twice in the head.

The year also ended badly. On 30 December, Canadian journalist Michelle Lang, 34, was killed along with four Canadian soldiers by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan and Indian freelance photojournalist Aman Kashyap was run over by a train in Ghaziabad while taking pictures of fog-bound rail services.

INSI's detailed list of fatal incidents in 2009 can be found at http://tinyurl.com/mtkgkn

Download here the INSI breakdown for 2009

As a safety organisation, INSI records all causes of death, whether deliberate, accidental or health-related, of all news media staff and freelancers while on assignment or as a result of their news organisation being attacked because of its role.

Other journalist support groups that are members of INSI maintain separate records based on their own criteria. They are:

The International Federation of Journalists http://www.ifj.org

The Committee to Protect Journalists http://www.cpj.org

The International Press Institute http://freemedia.at/cms/ipi

The World Association of Newspapers http://www.wan-press.org

Any questions about this news release should be addressed to Rodney Pinder, email rodney.pinder@newssafety.org or mobile +44 7734 709267.

Tribune Lenders Say Bankruptcy Plan Unfair

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - A group of Tribune Co lenders on Monday labeled the U.S. newspaper publisher's proposed plan to exit bankruptcy "unfair" and said they deserve the right to propose an alternative.

In a filing in the U.S. bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, two dozen lenders holding more than $3.6 billion of claims said it was "premature and misleading" for Tribune on April 8 to announce an accord with creditors that would help it emerge from Chapter 11 protection this year.

The lenders urged U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey to reject Tribune's effort to extend its "exclusive" period to file a reorganization plan without creditor interference through April 30. They said they could propose a "fairer and less rank" alternative.

Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman, declined to comment. The company is expected this week to file its proposed reorganization plan.

The unhappy lending group includes hedge funds that say they hold 42 percent of the $8.7 billion claims under a 2007 secured credit agreement. Its members include Goldman Sachs Loan Partners and Oaktree Capital Management LP, among others.

Tribune owns the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and other publications, as well as some television stations. It sold the Chicago Cubs baseball team earlier this year.

The Chicago-based company on April 8 announced an agreement purporting to settle potential claims arising from its $8.2 billion buyout in 2007, led by real estate developer Sam Zell.
Senior credit facility lenders would control 91 percent of stock in a reorganized company whose value is estimated at $6.1 billion.

The dissenting lending group said the agreement is "impossibly tainted" by Tribune's attempt to give a "free pass" to insiders including Zell, executives and large creditors including JPMorgan Chase & Co and bondholder Centerbridge Capital Advisors.

"This is a 'settlement' made possible with 'other people's money' -- specifically, that of the credit agreement lenders and other current holders of credit agreement claims left holding the bag," the lending group said.

An official committee of unsecured creditors also supports Tribune's agreement, while some junior bondholders oppose it.

JPMorgan and Centerbridge did not immediately return requests for comment. The lending group separately asked Carey to order Centerbridge to produce a variety of documents.

Tribune filed for bankruptcy protection on December 8, 2008.

The case is In re: Tribune Co et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 08-13141.

(Reuters Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Additional reporting by Tom Hals; Editing by Robert MacMillan)

Solidarity Strong as NABET-CWA Marks One Year with No NBC Contract

Marking one year since their contract expired, 2,500 NABET-CWA members at NBC are getting support from viewers and pro-worker elected officials as they continue to fight the company's scheme to shift their work to non-union jobs.

In Burbank, Calif., members of Local 59053 are getting a great response to buttons and a mobile billboard with the "No Longer Proud as a Peacock" message. The local also ran a newspaper ad welcoming Jay Leno back to late-night TV and asking him to stand with union members.

"People tell us they don't like what NBC did to Jay and Conan," Local 59053 Secretary Louis Gabriele said. "They know the same management responsible for that fiasco is trying to hurt us, and they don't like it."

In Washington, D.C., members of Local 52031 are gathering every Sunday outside NBC studios while "Meet the Press" guests come and go. Recent guests DNC Chairman Tim Kaine and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) showed their support.

"Congressman Hoyer had security stop his car and he jumped out to greet us," said Local Vice President Rich McDermott, a member of the bargaining team. "He told us we have his support and that he was very pleased with our support for the health care bill. The Republican minority leader, Mr. Boehner, hid behind his tinted limo windows."

Members from Local 51011 in New York continue to mobilize, too, and many mornings have picketed outside the street-front Today Show windows.

In addition to NBC's assault on union jobs, talks are centered on seniority, wage and benefit issues. The latest round of bargaining took place in mid-March; the previous contract expired March 31, 2009.

In other CWA News:

TNG-CWA Forces Bankrupt Tribune to Abandon Bonus Scheme

TNG-CWA won a victory against corporate greed and mismanagement with its successful court challenge blocking $20 million in executive bonuses that bankrupt Tribune Company wanted to pay to some 23 executives.

Intervention by TNG-CWA Local 32035 before the bankruptcy court forced Tribune to withdraw the bonus plan. The local represents about 230 workers at the Baltimore Sun and was the only union on the nine-member creditors committee.

Before it filed for bankruptcy, Tribune cut hundreds of jobs at the union-represented Sun as well as at the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other operations. When the company sought to pay the executive bonuses, the union intervened.

Tribune withdrew its bonus plans, though the judge said the company could try again when it emerges from bankruptcy. TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said the Guild will be watching.

Reminder: CWA's First Annual Photography Contest

CWA's First Annual CWA Photography Contest is looking for quality photos and photographers, so turn your creative eye to CWA members on the job, on the picket line and in action, and submit what could be a winning photo.

Winning photographs will be displayed at the CWA convention and may be published in the CWA News as well as in local newsletters.

Be creative, be dramatic, be funny. Look for good candid pictures and interesting ways to take group or other posed shots. Digital or film photos will be accepted, but digital photos must be high resolution.

Read more for categories, rules and requirements, including how to make sure your photos will be high rez.

The deadline for submitting pictures is June 18, 2010. Questions? Please contact Janelle Hartman in the CWA Communications Department at http://us.mc558.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Jhartman@cwa-union.org. Please put "CWA Photo Contest" in the subject line.

Solidarity, Public Support Lead to Contract Win at NPR

After getting the public behind them and beating back the worst of management demands, NABET-CWA members at National Public Radio overwhelmingly approved a five-year contract that raises wages, preserves job security and restores the union's voice in a benefits task force.

Members of Local 52031 rallied, leafleted and created a Facebook page encouraging listeners to e-mail NPR's CEO. The campaign stressed that workers agreed to take a big financial hit in 2009 to help the non-profit radio network overcome lost donations and corporate sponsorships at the economy's lowest point.

"Today, NPR is doing much, much better thanks to the sacrifices our members made, and yet NPR still wanted more," NABET-CWA President Jim Joyce said. "But Local 52031's solidarity and the very effective Facebook campaign, which NPR knew could grow much larger, made all the difference."

Listeners' e-mails cautioned CEO Vivian Schiller that they would reconsider their annual pledges if she didn't treat workers fairly. Bargaining team members said they were certain Schiller was reading the e-mails and believed that she even responded to some.

The contract provides an annual 2.5 percent wage increase, improves overtime pay, requires buyouts to be offered before layoffs, and maintains seniority rights.

The union regained a seat at the table when an NPR task force meets to discuss health care, retirement or other benefits.Local 52031 represents 65 workers, including audio technicians who are responsible for the radio network's award-winning sound and audio editing.

Tribune Officers Got ‘Incentives’ for Buyout Vote

By Steven Church

April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Tribune Co. officers approved a flawed leveraged buyout that drove the publisher into bankruptcy because they got “special monetary incentives,” creditors claimed in court papers.

Real estate billionaire Sam Zell designed the $8.3 billion transaction in a way that let Tribune’s managers cash out their stock while deferring millions of dollars in taxable capital gains, according to a draft amended complaint filed in the company’s bankruptcy case in Wilmington, Delaware.

The buyout’s structure gave Zell and company managers “huge windfalls that induced them to proceed with the ill- advised LBO that, although personally beneficial to them, was disastrous for Tribune,” the creditors, represented by their agent, Wilmington Trust Corp. said April 5 in court papers.

Tribune filed for bankruptcy in December 2008, a year after Zell used more than $8 billion in loans to take control of the publishing and television company. The company owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune.

The managers, including directors and other officers, weren’t named in the complaint, written to update a lawsuit filed against the banks that funded the 2007 buyout. Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman declined to comment.

Tribune’s bankruptcy divided creditors. Wilmington Trust alleges on behalf of bondholders that the company’s banks caused the bankruptcy by arranging loans the company had no chance of repaying.

The suit was filed against JPMorgan Chase Bank, Merrill Lynch Capital Corp., Citibank NA, Bank of America NA and Morgan Stanley & Co.

The banks were allied for much of the case with Tribune managers, who agreed to use company cash to pay the banks’ legal fees.

Hedge funds holding $4.2 billion of the buyout loans have told U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin Carey they want the chance to reorganize Tribune’s operations.

The main committee of unsecured creditors wants to file a lawsuit over the buyout in an effort to recover money. That committee, which includes representatives of the banks, opposes the Wilmington Trust lawsuit.

Tribune managers say they are trying to broker a settlement of the buyout claims that will allow the company to exit bankruptcy. They have sought an extension to April 30 of their exclusive right to reorganize.

The case is In re Tribune Co., 08-13141, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

--Editors: Mary Romano, David Rovella.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Church in Wilmington, Delaware, at schurch3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net

Tribune Settles Buyout Dispute With Some Creditors

By Steven Church

April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Tribune Co. said it settled a dispute among its main creditors by giving 91 percent of the bankrupt publisher to lenders and a smaller stake to other creditors.

The proposed settlement would avoid a new lawsuit over its 2007 buyout, which was blamed for the publisher’s bankruptcy a year later. The deal has the support of lenders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Centerbridge Partners LP, along with the official committee of unsecured creditors.

“I think it’s a product of a lot of give and take,” creditor committee attorney Howard Seife said in an interview. “There was a lot of compromise on both sides.”

Lower-ranking bondholders who have already sued JPMorgan and the other banks behind Tribune’s buyout aren’t part of the agreement, company spokesman Gary Weitman said.

Under the proposal, the holders of the senior notes would receive 7.4 percent of the company’s distributable value, which would be paid in a combination of cash, debt and stock, according to the statement.

The company’s senior lenders would receive cash and debt, and more than 91 percent of the equity of the reorganized company.

The proposal assumes the company is worth about $6 billion, Seife said. Under the proposal, more than $11.2 billion worth of debt will be traded for stock, cash and new loans, Seife said.
Wilmington Trust

Lower-ranking bondholders represented by their agent, Wilmington Trust Corp., won’t receive anything from the plan. The bondholder lawsuit was filed against JPMorgan Chase Bank, Merrill Lynch Capital Corp., Citibank NA, Bank of America NA and Morgan Stanley & Co.

Tribune’s 2008 bankruptcy divided creditors. Wilmington Trust alleged in its complaint on March 4 that Tribune’s banks caused the bankruptcy by arranging loans the company had no chance of repaying.

The proposal must be incorporated into a plan of reorganization. After creditors get a chance to vote on it, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin Carey will make the final decision on whether to approve it.

“It is another significant step forward as we continue to transform our media businesses, attract and retain talented people, and seize opportunities to grow,” Tribune Chief Executive Officer Randy Michaels said in a statement.

Tribune filed bankruptcy in December 2008, one year after real estate billionaire Sam Zell used more than $8 billion in loans to take control of the publishing and television company. The company’s newspapers include the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune.

Tribune managers have said in court that they have been trying to broker a settlement of the buyout claims that will allow the company to exit bankruptcy. They have sought an extension to April 30 of their exclusive right to reorganize the company.

The case is In re Tribune Co., 08-13141, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Church in Wilmington, Delaware, at schurch3@bloomberg.net.

I Hate Polls

By Bob Daraio -Broadcast Union News

"Most Americans Remain Against Health Care Overhaul" says a recent CBS News Poll.

I hate these polls, they don't ask the right questions. If you are going to poll people about healthcare reform, I wish the pollsters would ask better questions.

I understand that many, maybe even most, people are unhappy with this legislation, but I want to know why.


CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit:
Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20001700-503544.html

Here is what I'm very interested in knowing about people who are against the health reform bill.

How many think it doesn't do enough to move us towards universal healthcare?

How many don't think we've done enough to move the cost of healthcare off the middle class and on to the corporations and wealthy?

How many are against the bill because it disenfranchises women in terms of abortion, mammograms, and preventative care?

How many are against it because there is no public option? and finally;

How many think that leaving 22 million Americans without healthcare makes the bill ineffective?

These people are not the same as those, mostly Republicans, who oppose the bill because they are not interested in any healthcare reform, are afraid of any program that can be demonized by saying it leads us down the road to Socialism, and only care that their own personal healthcare needs have been met.

They remind me of when Ronald Reagan vetoed the Clean Water Act back in 1987. It was not that Ronnie was against clean water; it was just that he had his.

Bankruptcy Court Orders Tribune To Withdraw Executive Bonus Plans

By Susan R. Hobbs

A federal bankruptcy court judge in Delaware has dismissed a motion by Tribune Co. to implement a $21 million management incentive bonus plan, to which the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild (WBNG) Local 32035 had objected, an attorney for the union told BNA April 5 (In re Tribune Co., Bankr. D. Del., No. 08-13141 (KJC), 3/23/10).

Judge Kevin Carey of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware March 23 directed the Tribune Co. to dismiss its request of the court for authorization to implement the transition management incentive program (TMIP) and key operators bonus (KOB) components of the company's three-part 2009 management bonus plan, Robert Paul, a partner in the Washington, D.C., firm Zwerdling, Paul, Kahn & Wolly PC and attorney for the guild, said. The guild is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America.

In January, however, Carey granted the Chicago-based media company's request to implement the third component of the plan, known as the management incentive program (MIP), and bonuses totaling $45.6 million were paid to 720 mid- and upper-level Tribune Co. managers in February, Paul said. At that time, Judge Carey reserved judgment on the TMIP and KOB bonuses.

While the Tribune Co. has withdrawn the TMIP and KOB bonuses from consideration, the company could reconsider them after it emerges from bankruptcy, the judge said.

Newspaper Guild's Objections Led to Bonus Plan Withdrawal

Tribune Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 8, 2008 (237 DLR A-12, 12/10/08). WBNG was named as one of nine members of the creditors' committee in the Tribune Co.'s bankruptcy filing.

On July 22 Tribune petitioned the bankruptcy court for permission to pay bonuses in 2009. The company said it needed the funds to retain and encourage key personnel during a period of unprecedented challenge. In its petition, Tribune said, "doing so is difficult enough in the bankruptcy context, and those difficulties will be compounded if the Debtor cannot offer a competitive and appropriately incentivizing compensation structure."

According to court documents, the Tribune Co. had sought to provide $45.6 million in bonuses to managers under the MIP. In addition, the company sought to provide $10.6 million to 21 members of the company's "core management team," plus $1.3 million for 50 other employees under the TMIP. Finally, the Tribune had proposed to pay $9.3 million in "pay-for-performance" bonuses to 23 employees under the KOB plan.

In August, the WBNG questioned the wisdom and fairness of the $66 million three-part incentive plan in light of the financial crisis undermining the Tribune Co. (154 DLR A-10, 8/13/09). The guild represents editorial and commercial employees of the Baltimore Sun, which is owned by the Tribune Co. The Tribune Co. owns and operates several of the nation's largest newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and the Hartford Currant.

During the Aug. 11 hearing before Judge Carey, representatives of the "Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors" and the Tribune's senior lenders commented on the company's bonus program. Representatives of both groups told Carey they had no objections to the MIP. The only objection came from WBNG, which serves on the unsecured creditors committee and dissented during that group's review of the MIP.

The company's problems stem in part from declining newspaper circulation and recessionary factors cutting advertising revenue. Its troubles are complicated by a $13 billion debt load accrued in 2007, when Chicago real estate titan Sam Zell took the company private.

Text of the order may be accessed at http://op.bna.com/dlrcases.nsf/r?Open=vros-849ubz.

Tribune Lenders Want To More Deeply Examine Zell Takeover

Bloomberg News

Some of the secured lenders to newspaper publisher Tribune Co. want to examine documents held by Centerbridge Partners LP. The lenders, themselves under attack for their roles in the $13.8 billion leveraged buyout led by Sam Zell in December 2007, contend that Centerbridge was working on a similar acquisition that didn't succeed.

In papers filed in Delaware bankruptcy court on April 2, the lenders say that Centerbridge owns 37 percent, or $475 million of Tribune's senior notes. While Zell was working on his LBO, the lenders describe how Centerbridge was working with a major Tribune shareholder on a competing offer.

Where Centerbridge now contends the 2007 LBO with Zell included fraudulent transfers, the lenders want to obtain documents showing how Centerbridge "contemporaneously viewed" the transaction. The motion to compel Centerbridge to produce documents is on the April 13 bankruptcy court calendar.

The secured lenders are also at odds with Tribune, although on a different issue.

Last week Tribune filed a motion for an extension until April 30 of the exclusive right to file a Chapter 11 plan. Tribune wanted the bankruptcy judge to shorten time for filing objections to the motion.

The secured lenders, saying they hold $4.6 billion in debt, object to being given only three business days to answer the motion, which is Tribune's fifth request to extend so-called exclusivity.

The lenders contend that the new exclusivity motion is devoid of details about negotiations on a Chapter 11 plan. The lenders want their time to answer the motion to be extended until three days after Tribune files it promised "supplemental filings" with details on plan discussions. The hearing on the exclusivity motion is scheduled for April 13.

The Tribune case is hung up in disputes over the LBO.

Creditors believe the LBO was a fraudulent transfer because operating subsidiaries put liens on their assets to finance the Zell acquisition while not receiving commensurate value in return.

Tribune is of the view that settling the claims through a plan is the best outcome.

Tribune is the second-largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. It listed $13 billion in debt for borrowed money and assets of $7.6 billion in the Chapter 11 reorganization begun in December 2008. It owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, six other newspapers and 23 television stations.

The case is In re Tribune Co., 08-13141, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District Delaware (Wilmington).

Aggregators help media professionals keep on top of digital content trends

By Kevin Anderson, The Guardian
Article history

The internet is not like trying to drink from a firehose but rather like trying to drink from Niagara Falls. For any media professional trying to remain up to speed on digital content trends, it is often overwhelming. I've had to develop a lot of methods and constantly change the tools I use to manage this torrent of information. I've mentioned Popurls before as an easy one-stop shop to follow internet buzz, and once registered you can personalise the site to show your favourite digital content sites first.

You can log into Popurls using your user name and password from several other services such as Google or Yahoo. You can create your own Popurls sharing page and automatically post items you share to Facebook, Twitter or Friendfeed or mini-blogging sites Tumblr or Posterous.

However, if you don't want to take the time to personalise Popurls, there are a number of aggregators that pull together a great sample of digital trends. Sites such as Original Signal are good if you want a single page to have a quick glance at sites covering web 2.0 developments, such as TechCrunch, GigaOm, Mashable and ReadWriteWeb. There is a North American bias to a lot of the content because most of the aggregators operate from there, but it's a good start for a filtered view of the web based on the interests of a digital media professional.

These sites cover the world of web 2.0 with great depth, but if your interests are even more specific, you may want to check out the aggregator Alltop. It takes Popurls to the next level, not just featuring buzz and top-level topics but aggregated pages from sites and blogs covering a wide range of subjects. For instance, you can quickly find blogs and sites covering such specialist topics as web analytics, virtual worlds, rich internet applications or mobile. You can even filter Alltop based on location.

The newest addition to these media news aggregators is also the newest addition to the popular TechMeme family, MediaGazer. TechMeme uses an algorithm and human editors to filter tech stories that are generating conversation. MediaGazer takes the TechMeme model and focuses on media coverage, and it has a very good transatlantic spread, at least in terms of English-language media reporting.

Aggregators are just one way to manage information but, with a little tweaking, they can help the flood of information seem more manageable and relevant.

Pay Adds Up For Top Sirius XM Execs

http://www.radioink.com

March 30, 2010: In its proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sirius XM Radio reports its top executives' compensation for 2009, with Mel Karmazin receiving -- along with his base salary of $1.25 million -- a $7 million bonus and $35.2 million in option awards last year. President/Chief Content Officer Scott Greenstein received a bonus of $1 million along his base salary of $850,000, as well as $850,000 in stock awards and $8 million in option awards, for about $10.7 million for the year.

Sirius XM President/Operations & Sales James Meyer, meanwhile, received a base salary of $950,000, along with a $1.25 million bonus and $1 million in stock awards and $11.5 million in option awards, for a total with other compensatino of about $14.9 million.

All the executives made substantially more in 2009 than the year before, when Karmazin received total compensation of $1.3 million, Greenstein about $2.4 million, and Meyer about $3 million, and none received bonuses.

Sirius XM in 2009 made a deal with Liberty Media that gave that company a 40 percent stake and is believed to have averted a Chapter 11 filing for the satellite radio company. Also, in Q4 of '09 it reported its first profitable quarter since the Sirius-XM merger.

Sirius XM's annual shareholders' meeting is set for May 27.

New Tech Drives LIN's Local Expansion Through Staff Reductions

LIN Television has managed a neat trick.

At the same time it has cut costs, the station group has markedly expanded news and other local programming.

The secret is in technology that allow stations to do more with fewer people and in a renewed belief that local programming is the best way to bond with viewers.

Key to developing and implementing the strategy for the publicly traded company has been Scott Blumenthal, EVP, television, who once ran the group's largest station, CBS affiliate WISH Indianapolis (DMA 25). The group has at total of 27 full-power stations in 17 markets.

In an interview with TVNewsCheck Editor Harry A. Jessell, Blumenthal discussed the strategy, but also talked about sharing retrans revenue with the networks, the current healthy state of the business, "antiquated" ownership restrictions and the FCC's idea of taking back broadcast spectrum.

Jessell asked, I know that you have gone through a lot of restructuring at the stations to cut costs and just make the workflow more efficient. Is that work behind you now or is it a work still in progress?

Blumenthal replied, 'We have to cut costs. If you are talking about the situation whereby business wasn't as good as it used to be and we were just slashing off the top, that never really took place in our company. If you're talking about trying to make things more efficient and more productive through the use of technology and the redefinition of positions, then I don't think that will ever end. We will be constantly be looking at ways to do that."

"During the last year, we were able to cut costs substantially, triple digits, and at the same time we added 1,500 hours of local programming in our markets. So, it was not necessarily cost cutting as much as it was a more efficient operation that provided more and better quality products to the local communities."

Jessel asked, So you're suggesting that, with the evolution of technology, we might see more job cuts?

"It's very possible."

Could you sort of just elaborate very quickly on what this restructuring involved?

"LIN was on the forefront of this hub-and-spoke technology. We have been consolidating our stations into hubs. We have two primary hubs right now in Indianapolis and Springfield. We're operating 12 stations out of each. So that means we're able to move and consolidate backroom operations for master control, for traffic, AP, payroll, programming, some elements of promotion and so on."

"It just doesn't make any sense with 12 stations to record a specific syndicated program 12 times in 12 different markets when we can record it once and distribute it out to those stations. Those are the types of things that we're doing behind the scenes."

"In addition, as the production gear improves, we don't have the need for the trucks to go out on all calls anymore and we can do more editing in the field. Those are things that we think create a more efficient environment and increase not only the amount, but also the quality, of our news."

You mention 1,500 hours of local programming. Could you elaborate on that?

"We started with the first one in Providence. We call it The Rhode Show. It's an hour show. We have expanded it to Norfolk, where it's the Hampton Roads Show. It's Connecticut Style in Hartford, Indy Style in Indianapolis. We're about to premiere one in Buffalo called Winging It and so on."

"We're rolling it out in these different markets and, basically, it is a turn back to what this business lost and needs to regain and that's local programming that bonds the station with the local community. That's not only good for the television station, it's good for the community and ultimately it's good for the advertisers."

Is it also a function of the fact that you don't want to pay the big bucks for the syndicated product anymore?

"Oh, not at all. There are investments in these shows. Believe me. I could put a barter show on a lot cheaper than these shows are costing us, a lot cheaper. For these shows, we're paying hosts, we're paying producers, we're paying cameramen. We have got sets, we have got props. It's not a question of expense. It's a question of investment. We think these are the right things to invest in right now."

Of the 1,500 hours, is most of that news?

"No. Most of that are these local program developments. These shows run Monday to Friday. The news that we developed in the marketplace over 2009 was expansions into the weekends — Fort Wayne, for example, going into morning news on Saturday and Sunday and things like that."

What else is on your mind these days?

"This is going to sound very silly, but it's the honest to god truth that what is on my mind every day is what we just finished talking about: how we can make our stations better and more productive to the communities that we serve and do it in a responsible, economic fashion. That's what we think about every day."

Well, I bet you're thinking of trying to squeeze more revenue out of each of these markets. Do you have any particular strategy for doing that?

"I don't think a lot about squeezing more revenue out. I think about running an operation that's appropriate, the best-case scenario for each market. If we're doing that properly, we're going to maximize our revenue, we're going to maximize our shares."

"There's an inherent problem when all you think about is the amount of money that you're going to bring in because you do things that aren't necessarily in the best interest of your station. If you think about what is in the best interest of the market and what's the best way to sell and market your operation and if you do it properly, the money will come."

What about the local ownership rules? I don't think you're going to get much sympathy from Genachowski these days, but would you like to see them relaxed?

Scott Blumenthal, "It seems to me that if they're talking about spectrum give-backs and everything else, there has to be ways for these stations to pick up and maintain their financial viability. And right now, without some kind of ownership relief, there's going to be a lot of small stations in small markets that just aren't going to survive. They're just not going to do it."

"I appreciate the concept of not controlling a voice in a market, but that was true when there were just a few television stations and the one newspaper. There are hundreds, literally hundreds of sources for local and national news at this point in time."

"The old concept of controlling that voice because of the number of outlets is not appropriate anymore. At some point, they are going to have to look at increasing duopolies and easing the controls on them. It's an antiquated mentality that exists right now. "

"We have nine duopoly markets and I can tell you that in those markets we have increased the amount of local programming and local news."

That may be true, but the argument that comes back is even though the number of hours of news may have increased, the number of independent voices have got smaller.

Scott Blumenthal, "Like I say, if we were the only ones controlling the business or voices in the market, then that argument would make some sense. Two stations may get together in a market. In the meantime, maybe 50 websites have popped up local newspapers, bloggers, local journalists, video users. There's hundreds of sources of local content today."

Loophole Gives Tribune More Time To File Reorganization Plan

Tribune Co. Buys More Time For Reorganization Plan

By Michael Oneal
http://www.chicagobreakingbusiness.com

With the clock ticking on a March 31 deadline, Tribune Co. bought more time to negotiate with its fractious creditors Wednesday when it filed a motion in Delaware bankruptcy court to extend until April 30 its exclusive right to propose a reorganization plan in its 15-month-old Chapter 11 case.Any extension of the "exclusivity period" would require a judge's approval. But the move takes advantage of a quirk in Delaware law, which allows Tribune Co. to file the motion and essentially freeze exclusivity until the next scheduled court hearing April 13.

Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and other media properties, had filed four extensions in the case as it tries to broker a compromise deal between its sparring senior creditors and junior bondholders. It's most recent extension was set to run out Wednesday.

Several sources said the goal is still to have an agreement before the April hearing, perhaps as early as in the next few days. But, as one source said, "Human nature is such that until the last minute, people aren't willing to make a deal."Tribune Co.'s option had been to file a plan that would takes sides with one group of creditors, angering the other. Or it could have proposed an official compromise solution that ran the risk of angering everybody, sources said.

Company management and its Chicago-based lead counsel, Sidley Austin, have been consistent in saying they'd like to reach a consensual plan to recapitalize the company. Now they've given themselves at least 13 more days to see whether that's possible.

Tribune Co. won't comment on negotiations, but the general architecture of a proposed restructuring plan hasn't changed significantly since the middle of last year, sources said.

Saddled with $13 billion in debt incurred largely to finance the disastrous 2007 leveraged buyout led by Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell, Tribune Co. has proposed swapping most of the debt for equity in a newly public, unburdened company.

The focus of negotiations is how that equity would get split up.

Senior creditors, comprising banks led by JPMorgan Chase that lent more than $8.6 billion to the deal, as well as countless hedge funds and distressed debt investors who bought pieces of those loans on the secondary market, have long contended that the value of Tribune Co. has fallen well below $5 billion, meaning their claims, being senior, should overwhelm all others.

But two groups of junior bondholders with more than $2 billion at stake have cried foul, saying they were improperly subordinated to the senior lenders by the deal. They have threatened to bring a case of "fraudulent conveyance" and breach of fiduciary duty against the lenders, Tribune Co.'s board and Zell, charging that the LBO rendered the company insolvent as soon as the ink dried on the contracts.

After months of court-imposed discovery that produced more than 2 million documents and e-mails, the unsecured creditors committee filed a motion in early February asking U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey for permission to bring such a case.

The net effect has been to increase the leverage of the junior bondholders. But even that is complicated: One group of bondholders, led by distressed debt investor Centerbridge Partners, is senior in hierarchy to the other, represented by Wilmington Trust Co. That means the Centerbridge group has been central to the negotiations while Wilmington has complained in court of being left out.

Though details remain up in the air, a deal would likely give a large majority stake in Tribune Co. to the LBO banks and a consortium of other senior creditors led by distressed investing hedge funds Angelo, Gordon & Co. and Oak Tree Capital, sources say. The question is how much they will be willing to give up to buy peace with Centerbridge and the creditors committee. Whether Wilmington would be brought under the tent or have a deal forced on it is not clear. An attorney for the group did not return a request for comment.

The implications of not cutting a deal are plain. The April 13 hearing is scheduled to take up the creditor committee's motion to file a fraudulent conveyance complaint as well as a separate action pressed by Wilmington. Absent a compromise among the major creditor groups, Tribune Co.'s expensive legal wrangling will continue.
________________

Notes: The company said in its court filing today that it couldn't explain why it needs more time without revealing confidential information about the negotiations to the public.

The banks are challenging the bondholders' right to sue. The lawsuit was brought by Wilmington Trust Co on behalf of the bondholders against banks that include Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Barclays Plc (BARC.L), Citigroup Inc (C.N), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N). [ID:nN04128419]

The bondholders claim the buyout illegally loaded billions of dollars of debt onto Tribune's newspapers, television stations and other operations without giving them any value in return. The loans were used to buy the company from shareholders.

The case is In re Tribune Co., 08-13141, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

News of the Day: Employers added most jobs in 3 years in March

By Mike Kruger

The US economy continues to improve under the stewardship of President Obama and the Democratic Congress. The jobs report is further evidence the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is putting people back to work.

As Chairman of the EDUCATION & LABOR COMMITTEE, Congressman George Miller
(D-CA) said, “Today’s news that our nation created the most jobs in three years is a sign that our efforts are helping to move our economy in the right direction. When President Obama first inherited this crisis, our economy was losing around 700,000 jobs a month. Today’s figures reflect what private sector economists have told us: that the Recovery Act has increased economic activity and is helping to restore confidence in families and businesses. “But, we are not out of the woods yet. All across the country, local communities are announcing layoffs of thousands of teachers, public safety officers and other vital personnel because of tight budgets.

These layoffs threaten to reverse today’s positive economic report and stall the real progress we are making. House Democrats and a bipartisan group of mayors introduced legislation to create one million public and private sector jobs to help restore vital services that families and local communities rely on.”A

ccording to the Associated Press, employers added the most jobs in 3 years in March. The jobs report said:

The Labor Department said employers added 162,000 jobs in March, the most since the recession began but below analysts' expectations of 190,000. The total includes 48,000 temporary workers hired for the U.S. Census, also fewer than many economists forecast.

Private employers added 123,000 jobs, the most since May 2007.

There are 15 million Americans out of work. More Americans entered the work force last month, which prevented the increase in jobs from reducing the unemployment rate.

Manufacturers added 17,000 jobs, the third straight month of gains. Temporary help services added 40,000, while health care added 37,000. Leisure and hospitality added 22,000.

Even the beleaguered construction industry added 15,000 positions, though that likely reflects a rebound from February, when major snowstorms may have kept many construction workers off payrolls. The average work week increased to 34 hours from 33.9, a positive sign.

Most employers are likely to work current employees longer before they hire new workers.

The department also revised January's job total to show a gain of 14,000, up from a previously reported loss of 26,000. February's job numbers were also revised higher by 22,000 to show a loss of 14,000. The economy has now added jobs in three months since the recession began in December 2007.

If you are a small business owner, and wondering how you can benefit from this improving economy, well There's An Act For That, Too.

Mike Kruger
Online Outreach Specialist
Committee on Education and Labor

Media Ignoring Labor Union Successes

by Randy Shaw

Labor unions have had some tremendous successes in recent weeks, but you would never know this from the mainstream media.

The Teamsters won bargaining rights for 7600 workers at Continental Airlines, which only rated a small non-bylined story in the Business Section of the New York Times and was ignored by other national media.

UNITE HERE Local 11 is waging an inventive contract campaign against Disney that included several workers on a week long fast, a tent camp out, and candlelight vigil outside Disneyland -- all providing good photo ops -- yet media outside Southern California ignored these efforts. Even worse, the February 15 New York Times ran a story on Disney’s promotion at the Epcot Center in Florida of a “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” charitable project. The contrasting Disney coverage is but one example of how the media has shifted its approach to labor activism so that such stories are treated as strictly local news.

Yet news about corporations, as well as local shootings, fires or climate events, get national coverage.One reason that I write so frequently about labor activism is that the mainstream media has largely abandoned this entire area of news.


The past month alone has seen NUHW’s landmark victory at Kaiser, the Teamsters victory at Continental, solidarity between IBEW and UNITE HERE in rallies in Las Vegas, and between NUHW and UNITE HERE in Southern California protests, yet all only garnered local coverage.

The reasons are many. Few newspapers still have a regular labor reporter, with those like Phil Dine at the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Steve Franklin at the Chicago Tribune now gone without being replaced. The Washington Post no longer has a reporter covering labor exclusively, nor the Boston Globe, nor the Detroit papers.

The rare stories that editors allow to go forward are increasingly assigned to business reporters, who lack the knowledge of labor issues and must tread carefully to avoid alienating the corporations they regularly cover.

Norma Rae Would Be Ignored Today

The absence of labor reporters is a symptom of a larger media trend that now sees union activism and elections as deserved only of local coverage, while corporate news wins national attention. So the New York Times reports on Disney’s public relations event in Orlando, Florida is reported by, while UNITE HERE’s far more newsworthy event at Disneyland gets only local press.

Similarly, the Teamsters victory at Continental was based in Houston, and the Houston Chronicle’s business section ran a very positive account of the workers 13-year struggle -- with five prior defeats -- to win unionization. But the rest of the national media largely ignored the story, with the Times running a small non-bylined story in the Business section.

It was not so long ago that union struggles warranted national coverage.

For example, the Teamsters’ 13- year struggle at Continental sounds a bit like the longtime campaign by southern textile workers to organize a union at J.P. Stevens. This struggle became immortalized in the film Norma Rae, which was based on Crystal Lee Sutton’s real life role in winning support for the union.

Now I don’t know if anyone at Continental held up a large sign with the word “Union” as Sutton did, and the work conditions at Continental are likely not as onerous as those found in textile mills. But I suspect there were a number of gripping human stories surrounding the Teamsters 13 year struggle that deserved national attention, yet were ignored.

Sutton’s death last September justifiably received widespread attention. I’m sure the longtime union activist would recognize the irony that her death received far more media attention than is granted to any worker in an ongoing labor struggle; if Sutton held up the sign “Union” today, few would ever hear of it.

East Coast Bias

In addition to restricting union successes to local coverage, East Coast bias may be at play. I saw this firsthand on Cesar Chavez Day last March 31 when neither the New York Times nor Washington Post even mentioned Chavez, despite his birthday being a holiday in California and several other states (and the recent Inauguration of a president whose “Yes We Can” campaign theme was borrowed from the UFW’s “Si Se Puedé.”).

As with the J.P. Stevens campaign, Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers movement received significant national media coverage in an era when the media still framed labor struggles as national stories. Today, the New York media appears to see the UFW’s rise as a California story, ignoring all three books about Cesar Chavez and the UFW released since the fall of 2008, including my Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century (in contrast, New York media gave major coverage in 2009 to two books on the legacy of conservative East Coaster William F. Buckley).

East Coast bias is part of the reason for the lack of national coverage of UNITE HERE’s Disney campaign, NUHW’s David and Goliath victories over SEIU, or the alliance between UNITE HERE Local 226 and IBEW 1245 that on February 9 brought over 400 workers to a street protest against Nevada Energy in Las Vegas.

But this East Coast bias does not apply to national coverage given to other West Coast events, such as the recent transit station beating in Seattle or crime and climate stories, which, like stories about corporations, are seen as national.

Deciding What’s News

It makes a difference when Disney Corp. gets New York Times coverage for its charitable endeavors, while its effort to raise health care costs for UNITE HERE workers at its famed Disneyland Hotel is ignored.

It also makes a difference when a national story line emerges of declining union membership and labor on the defensive, while the national media ignores NUHW’s victory at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, part of the largely non-union St. Joseph’s Health Systems.

The media blackout of labor success’s contributes to a popular mindset that unions are outdated, and that their failures are self-inflicted, rather than a direct result of hostile employers and anti-union labor laws.

The popular media image of labor “bosses” has no place for stories of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka getting arrested in support of striking hotel workers; we are far from the days when the arrival of a national figure like Trumka can get the media to “nationalize” a labor struggle, even when it is part of a nine-city national hotel campaign.


When you read about dwindling newspaper readership, consider how the struggles of working people are no longer considered newsworthy.


It’s not just the Internet that has driven down circulation; rather, it’s hard-pressed workers not finding stories that have meaning to them, and then saving money by canceling subscriptions.

Randy Shaw is the author of Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century.

http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/About_Us_1299.html Read About it Here!

Globe Union Feels ‘Betrayed’ As Times Bosses Paid Millions

By Christine McConville - Boston Herald Reporter

Boston Globe union members are telling their bosses at the New York Times [NYT] Co. that they want their money back.

The furious scribes learned last week that the architects of last year’s brutal $20 million in cost cuts were richly rewarded for their efforts.
And now, as the Boston Newspaper Guild prepares to negotiate a new contract, its members say they want the money they gave up last year.

“We are insulted, but we also feel betrayed that you would reap such profits at a time when so many of your employees have lost so much,” the Boston Newspaper Guild says in a letter addressed to New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Chief Executive Janet Robinson.

The scathing missive is circulating 11 months after Times executives came to Boston and delivered a staggering ultimatum: The paper’s unions had to trim $20 million from their payrolls or the Times Co. would close the Globe.

After a few stormy months, the unions conceded, and a grateful Sulzberger came from Manhattan to thank them.

Two weeks ago, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed that in 2009, Robinson’s compensation rose 32 percent, to $6.2 million, while Sulzberger’s pay more than doubled to $5.9 million.

“We want the New York Times leadership to know that we’re angry and disgusted by their greed and hypocrisy,” the union’s letter states. “The recent SEC filings make it look like almost all of our sacrifices went to pay the two of you.”

Lawyers Have Billed Tribune Co. $138M Since It Filed For Bankruptcy

By Michael Oneal, Tribune reporter

Kevin Carey isn't likely to win any awards for reining in runaway bankruptcy fees. But at least he took a stab at it.Carey was the U.S. bankruptcy judge in Delaware who last year warned lawyers in the Tribune Co. case that they had better think twice about charging more than $1,000 an hour.Chicago's Sidley Austin, the lead debtor's attorney, filed a top rate of $925.

New York's Chadbourne & Parke, which represents unsecured creditors, charged $955.
Both firms have managed to do pretty well anyway.

In the 15 months since Chicago-based Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy, law firms and other professionals have billed the media conglomerate $138 million, or about one-quarter of the company's cash flow last year, an analysis of court documents shows.

Sidley's take alone is pushing $25 million, and the case is far from over.As big as those numbers are, experts agree, the spending is hardly unusual.Major cases in recent years — Enron ($793 million), United Airlines ($296 million), Delphi (just under $400 million) — have been colossally expensive. And the monstrous Lehman Brothers case, now under way in New York, will dwarf all of those. After just 17 months it has generated fees of $457 million, and that jumps to more than $700 million if you include management fees earned by restructuring specialist Alvarez & Marsal.

Bankruptcy fees have been rising at a rate of 8 percent to 10 percent annually over the past decade, far outpacing inflation, estimates Lynn LoPucki, a bankruptcy scholar at the University of California at Los Angeles law school. And the upward pressure is likely to build in the coming years as more companies try unsuccessfully to refinance a mountain of bubble-priced debt in a weak, reluctant market."It's very troubling," said Robert White, a retired bankruptcy specialist with O'Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles. "In the last 15 or 20 years it's gotten a lot worse."Despite some grumbling, debtors, creditors and judges seem resigned to the trend.

With the exception of Carey's early flash of concern, neither he nor the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee charged with overseeing fees in the Tribune Co. case have blinked at the millions of dollars flowing out of the estate each month.

Stuart Maue, the St. Louis firm hired to examine fee applications, has challenged a tiny sliver of the billings so far, and its own $812,642 in fees are almost triple the $265,869 in savings it has found.

The only serious challenge to the Tribune Co. fees has come from junior bondholders. They are contesting an out-of-court agreement under which Tribune Co. paid $25 million to cover professional fees incurred in just the first 10 months of the case by the banks that provided the financing for the company's failed 2007 leveraged buyout. The move has generated lots of claims and counterclaims — and even more fees — but Carey has yet to rule.For the law firms, attention tends to focus on those eye-popping top rates pulled down by a handful of partners like lead attorneys James Conlan of Sidley (who recently got a raise to $950) and Howard Seife of Chadbourne (now at $965).

But the real cost stems from the army of professionals deployed. More than 160 people at Sidley have spent the equivalent of 4.6 years on the Tribune Co. case at an average rate of about $500 an hour.

Sidley's Conlan acknowledges that the costs are high but says they are market rate. The complexity of the case, he said, demands wide and diversified legal resources, and "it would be difficult to argue that Chapter 11 isn't the best way to preserve value."Nevertheless, some costs are hard to fathom. Sidley has spent $110,000 making copies. The top four professional firms in the case have billed a total of $1.2 million to cover the cost of preparing those bills.

Don Liebentritt, chief legal officer at Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune, said he has little choice but to pay up."Would we like it to be less expensive?" Liebentritt asked. "Sure. But you need to retain the best people possible to do what you need to do. … What I have to pay is determined by the market."

Many bankruptcy experts connect the rising costs to the fact that cases have become infinitely more complex in the years since the federal Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 gave corporate managers the ability to design their own restructurings and negotiate solutions with creditors.

Early on, the process was relatively orderly. Debtors obtained a high degree of control over their fate. Unsecured creditors got a single voice in negotiations through a creditors committee paid for by the estate. The senior creditors were usually one or two big banks that presented a unified front. Lawyers tended to follow a regular set of strategies to forge a workable compromise.

The cost of fighting in court can be seen plainly in Sidley's Tribune Co. billings. For the first eight months of the case, Sidley spent $1.3 million on litigation-related issues. But after the case began to focus on charges by junior bondholders that the 2007 LBO was improper, litigation fees jumped to $4.2 million over the next five months.

One byproduct of all these changes is that bankruptcy court became a magnet for the sort of highly paid gladiators who flocked to mergers during the 1980s. Big firms built major practices, creating scarcity value by offering capabilities smaller firms couldn't match.

In Chicago, that has paid dividends as firms like Sidley, Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden carved out major national franchises rivaling New York for big cases."Bankruptcy has become an elite practice," Baird said. "There's a superstar phenomenon like in all professions."

One reason the fee issue is so difficult to solve, said Seton Hall law professor Stephen Lubben, is that the outcomes of Chapter 11 arguably justify the costs. Companies with billions in assets and thousands of employees emerge with unencumbered balance sheets and a new lease on life. Despite the chaos, creditors of all kinds can also get their day in court, or choose to sell into a liquid market.

The problem, critics argue, is that incentives to control costs may be getting lost. Theoretically, all sides are hurt if fees whittle away the value of the bankruptcy estate. So all should be prudent in launching new litigation and vigilant over a sprawling posse of attorneys and investment bankers working by the hour.

But in practice, it is more complicated. Motivations can become so fragmented in a complex case that relying on each party's self interest to protect the estate doesn't always work. Management may be more interested in survival than trimming lawyer fees. If a hedge fund buys a bond for 10 cents on the dollar, the goal may be to simply double its money by fighting for a recovery of 20 cents. The long-term fate of the company may not figure into the calculation at all."If somebody thinks they can get more of a recovery in a courtroom than in a conference room, that means complex litigation at a high cost," Butler said.

Adding to the problem is the industry's reluctance to police itself.

To hold down costs in the Lehman case, for instance, the court formed a fee committee composed of representatives from the debtor, the creditors, the U.S. Trustee and Kenneth Feinberg, President Barack Obama's pay czar.

Feinberg has issued more challenges than the average fee examiner. But he has been met with howls from high-profile firms like Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Jones Day, which have successfully pushed back. Filings show that the biggest battle has been waged over how to account for the hours spent preparing fee applications.

The time spent debating the issue, of course, will be billed to the estate.

mdoneal@tribune.com