May 20, 2015

IAPE Statement On Buyout Rumors

We were surprised to learn today that buyouts may have been "offered" to Wall Street Journal staff. When IAPE TNG/CWA Local 1096, the largest Union representing employees at Dow Jones & Company, approached management earlier this year and asked about buyouts, we were given the standard response: There is no organized effort to offer buyouts to staff members, but management is always willing to listen if an employee is interested in leaving and wonders if a separation package might be available.

That these discussions happen every year is absolutely accurate — end of fiscal and calendar years are always circled on our calendar. We have come to expect small reorganizations in all IAPE-represented departments at Dow Jones. In fact, as our layoff list (http://iape1096.org/info/layoffStatus.php) shows, 46 IAPE-represented employees have been affected by workforce reductions so far this year.

(Many of the Customer Service moves are the result of a transfer of positions from New York to South Brunswick, NJ — employees were given an opportunity to move with those jobs, or receive a layoff package. Net headcount may actually increase once the dust settles.)

Regardless, we question anybody who claims the current WSJ environment is "The worst it's ever been." These aren't the days of Kann & Zannino when hundreds of IAPE-represented and Dow Jones management positions were eliminated year after year.