Tribune Union Opposes $46 Million in Manager Bonuses

[Omaha Steve]

http://broadcastunionnews.blogspot.com/2010/01/tribune-union-opposes-46-million-in.html

By Steven Church, www.bloomberg.com with additional material by Michael Oneal, Tribune reporter

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Tribune Co. should be blocked from paying managers as much as $45.6 million in bonuses, The Newspaper Guild, one of the bankrupt newspaper publisher’s unions said in court papers.

The proposed bonus pool is “excessive by any measure,” because it comes when the company is experiencing a historic low in cash flow, attorneys for the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild wrote in an objection filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

“It seems way too generous for the circumstances this year,” said Bill Salganik, a past president of the guild and a member of a committee of unsecured creditors involved in Tribune’s bankruptcy.

Lawyers for the company are scheduled to be in court tomorrow before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey to defend the so-called management incentive plan, part of an annual bonus paid out since at least 1997, according to court papers.

Acting U.S. Trustee Robert DeAngelis also opposes the bonus plans, lawyers for DeAngelis said today in a court filing. The trustee’s office is an arm of the Justice Department that oversees bankruptcy cases.

Tribune, based in Chicago, filed for bankruptcy court protection in December 2008, about a year after real-estate billionaire Sam Zell’s $8.3 billion purchase of the publishing and television company. Tribune owns the Los Angeles Times and the namesake Chicago newspaper among other properties.

FULL story at link.