Layoffs hurt those already hurting

Reflecting on the limited information I have about the most recent layoffs at the Wilson Times leads to some troubling impressions. A number of the people who were laid off either had health problems of their own or had dependents on the company insurance who had health problems. Among those names I've been told about are one former employee with diabetes and a heart condition, who probably can't get personal health insurance; a former employee with a recently diagnosed chronic disease; and a former employee with a handicapped child. Employees like that drive up group insurance rates, and that increases the employer's costs. I worry about what these people will do. Finding a job past a certain age is extremely difficult, to which I can testify, and COBRA coverage is time-limited and expensive. Some of these people will be eagerly hoping that Congress passes a health plan that will cover them, and quickly.

I have no reason to think that insurance costs factored into layoff decisions, but eliminating employees with these conditions will probably cut the company's health insurance premiums, and cutting costs is what these layoffs are all about.

Other layoffs involved people in senior management positions — people who were being paid the most. Laying off these employees saves more money than laying off the same number of lower-paid, junior employees. That's not an uncommon strategy in retrenchments, although some unions have a "last hired, first fired" agreement to protect senior workers.

Layoffs are always a painful event in any industry. In the news business, where layoffs have become common across the country recently, it's especially sad because these layoffs reduce the the news media's ability to fill its traditional "watchdog" role, leave the public less informed and give corrupt public officials greater latitude to get away with shenanigans.

Lest you get the impression that all newspapers are chopping staff by half, as the Wilson Times has done, other papers, while hurting, are not that bad off. I talked to a former colleague Thursday, whose newspaper in another N.C. city is "doing fine," absorbing a little decline in ad sales but maintaining staff and news coverage. The continuing massacre of jobs at the Wilson Times is far beyond the industry norm.