The omen

Parking yourself by a desk in a newsroom for most of the day can sometimes make one forget that there is more to publishing a newspaper than utilizing the skills of reporters, editors, photographers and the like. And as dire as the industry's proverbial "perfect storm" has been for journalists, it has been even more dire in other parts of the business.

Like the production building.

A friend of mine who I know mostly through our shared interest in music - he plays the drums in three bands and I sometimes bring my guitar to sit in on some sets at local blues clubs - also works at the paper in a place where most journalists probably couldn't find: the packaging department. And my colleagues who thought mandatory furlough days and 9.25 percent pay cuts were hard to digest should have a talk with him. He thinks we're lucky.

My buddy has been working in packaging for nearly a quarter century. He began his career in the business when he was 22 years old. Ronald Reagan had yet to be tainted by the Iran-Contra scandal. Los Angeles still had two professional football teams. A full-timer, he was devoted to his job and the company. His pay: about $20 an hour.

On Feb. 1, his pay was cut almost in half. His hours were also slashed, rendering him a part-timer and making him ineligible for health insurance. The bottom line: his earnings have gone from about $800 a week to a little more than $300. He can only get by now through the help of his paying gigs.

Several of his co-workers, similarly affected, saw the reductions in hour and pay as an insult. They quit. Meanwhile, the department has cut its full-time staff in half, and those who were making what my friend was earning saw their pay slashed, too. Even part-timers who were making but $13 or $14 an hour saw their pay cut.

I'm not passing any judgements as to whether these folks were screwed, or whether the company made a well-reasoned business decision to stay afloat during an unprecedented downturn in the industry. But who's to say what's happening in packaging won't start happening in newsrooms across the country?